Seductress
by naughtycate
Summary: Troy and Gabriella have been dating for two years and Troy has tried to be patient with her reluctance to move their physical relationship further. What happens when he gets an offer he's not sure he can refuse? Troypay, some Troyella. COMPLETE!
1. The problem

Disclaimer: The rating of this story should be taken seriously. It bears an M or R rating. If you aren't old enough to be reading this story, don't! Thank you!

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"Mmm, that feels nice, Troy," Gabriella moaned softly as Troy massaged her breast through the thin black fabric of her bra.

"Yeah?" he smiled against her neck before continuing his mouth's intense work on the soft skin he found there.

Troy was trying very hard. They had officially been dating for two whole years. Years that had been filled with good times, sweet moments, and only occasional ventures below the waist. He had put in his time and felt that he had been incredibly patient with Gabi's reluctance. He wasn't exactly sure what she was waiting for, but he was sincerely hoping it wasn't marriage as he was very certain that wedding bells wouldn't be calling his name for many more years.

She shifted under him, accidentally putting her thigh in direct contact with the now rapidly hardening bulge in his pants. Instead of doing what he thought most girls in this situation would have done, she simply giggled and moved again, putting all parts of her body away from his crotch. He tried to continue without pausing though all he wanted to do was shove himself back into her to relieve some, any, of the pressure.

"I should go," she said suddenly, pushing up on his bare chest.

"What? Why?"

"Just a little thing called homework, Troy. You should try it sometime," she teased, sliding out from under him since he had so far failed to move off of her.

"You're killing me," he groaned into his pillow as she found her shirt on the floor and put it back on.

"What did you say?" she asked absently. Deciding he had to continue to be the supportive boyfriend, he mustered up a smile and pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Nothing, babe. Good luck with your work," he said, pretending as best he could to be anything other than painfully horny. She grinned at him and pressed a light kiss to his cheek before leaving. He outwardly groaned and headed for the door to remove the rubber band from the outside door knob. Whenever that particular green rubber band was placed on the door knob, it was his or Chad's signal to stay away. Since both he and his roommate and best friend had steady girlfriends, they'd decided that they needed some sort of way to let the other know that entering the room would be a really bad idea. As he grasped the rubber band, he had a sudden urge to rip the thing to shreds. So, he did. Or rather, he tried, twisting and pulling it as hard as he could before finally admitting defeat and throwing it down the hallway at nothing in particular. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew that yet another in a series of many, many cold showers was in order.

Not even bothering to put on a shirt, he grabbed his shower stuff and towel and headed down the hall to the bathroom. On his way, he saw Chad stick his head out of Zeke's dorm room.

"Off to see how cold the water can get here in New Mexico, Troy?" Chad teased, knowing his best friend well enough to know what the frustrated look on Troy's face meant. He knew that Troy was doing his best to hold out until Gabriella was ready, but also that Troy's patience was quickly waning. Chad and Taylor had finally taken the final step in their physical relationship earlier that year thanks to the privacy living in the dorms provided them.

Troy shoved open the bathroom door hard, wincing at the sound as it hit the tile wall behind it hard. The bang echoed throughout the empty bathroom and he made his way back to the showers, peeking down the row to find all of the shower curtains standing open, signifying that the entire bathroom was indeed empty, a rare occurrence. He picked the farthest stall from the door and stepped inside, quickly removing his pants and boxer briefs and hanging them over the shower curtain rod before stepping under the lukewarm spray. As the water cascaded down his body, he willed the semi-erection he was sporting to go away quickly so he could finish his shower. But, as memories of the feeling of Gabi's body wriggling around beneath his returned to his thoughts, he sighed deeply and reluctantly wrapped his hand around his now fully hard cock.

A few years ago, he never would have imagined that he could eventually become tired of jerking off, but after two years of finishing himself off, he was more than ready for someone else to do it for him. Only twice had he and Gabi gone beyond her usual "underwear rule," and both times had been on some kind of significant anniversary. He groaned, more out of frustration than pleasure, and let his head drop forward onto the shower wall as his hand continued to pump his shaft. It wasn't even about feeling good at that point, he just wanted to be done with it so he could get on with his evening.

As he felt his orgasm mounting, his toes curled into the flip-flops he always wore in the shower and he bit down on his bottom lip hard to stop any potential noise from escaping his lips. His breathing had almost returned to normal and he was just getting ready to shampoo his hair when a pair of rapidly moving footsteps started heading his way.

"Dude! Troy! Big party at the Beta house tonight! Hurry up in there!" Chad shouted before leaving the bathroom again. The prospect of drowning his woes in alcohol was looking enticing, but he wasn't sure that it was the right thing to do without Gabriella with him. If she had homework to do, there was no way that she'd stop to go along to a party. He toweled off and made his way back to his and Chad's room grudgingly.

"I don't know about this party, Chad," he admitted as he blocked himself from Chad's view with his closet door while he changed.

"Don't puss out, Troy. You haven't been to a party in months."

"Yeah, well… Gabriella's always busy."

"Taylor's not going either. She and Gabriella are working on a project for their Bio class. Just call her and tell her you're going. Don't ask. Just tell her you're going with me. She won't care."

"Trust me, she'll care," Troy mumbled as he finally emerged from behind the door, but grabbing his cell phone anyway. His fingers found her speed dial button easily, and he sat down on his bed to wait for her to answer.

"What's up, Troy?" she asked, sounding distracted.

"Chad wants me to head to the party at the Beta house with him, do you mind if I go?" he asked, shooting a hopeful look at Chad.

"Oh, I guess not. Just try not to drink too much, okay? I won't be there to take care of you," she smiled.

"Sure thing, babe. I'll call you tomorrow. Good luck with your project," he said, hanging up quickly and smiling at Chad. "Beer. Please. Now?"

"Whatever you say, Captain," Chad smiled, clapping a hand on Troy's shoulder as they made their way out the door.


	2. The proposition

"I just don't know what to do," Troy groaned, accepting a second beer from Chad's outstretched hand. He didn't make a habit of drinking, and knew that his father would probably kill him if he ever found out, but occasionally, getting drunk was just what he needed. He hadn't yet consumed enough to feel much of a buzz, but he was certainly feeling more relaxed. Chad knew more of the Beta frat brothers than Troy did, since they'd been trying desperately to get Chad to pledge their fraternity that fall. He'd declined due to being busy, and they hadn't taken it too hard. They still invited him to all of their parties personally, obviously hoping he'd change his mind for Spring pledging.

"I don't know what to tell you, Troy," Chad admitted with a sigh.

"I mean, I can't break up with her just because she won't touch my penis!" Troy exclaimed, immediately looking around to see if his awkward declaration had caused anyone to look their way. Thankfully, the party was in swing enough that no one had noticed.

"I don't know… that sounds like a pretty good reason to break up with her," Chad shrugged.

"Chad!" Troy groaned, "How can you say that?"

"Dude, you two have been dating for two years and you've gotten _two_ blowjobs. That's ridiculous." Troy blushed lightly and stared into his beer.

"Not exactly…" he said, hating to admit to his best friend what he had sworn he would never admit to anyone, "Both times it was more of a manual effort." Chad just stared at him, seemingly aghast at Troy's confession.

"Two years… and all you've gotten is _two_ handjobs. You've _got_ to be kidding me."

"Why the hell would I joke about something like that?" Troy asked incredulously before chugging the rest of his beer. "You want another one?"

"After that information, you'd better bring us both two," Chad stated, sitting back into the lumpy couch. Troy shot him a pointed look before getting up and heading for the kitchen where the kegs were located. After getting four cups of beer, he headed back towards the living room to see Chad talking to Zeke. He hesitated a moment before heading over. Now that Zeke was talking to them, he knew that another of his friends would probably be finding out about the sordid details of his sexual past with Gabriella. The guys were all aware of the fact that he and Gabriella had yet to have sex, but they didn't know just how infrequent their encounters had been. If once a year even counted as infrequent. Troy thought that the term "painfully random" would have been more accurate.

"Hey Troy, how are your blue balls?" Zeke asked, prompting Chad to give him a high five.

"Fuck off, Zeke," Troy sighed, handing Chad two of the glasses before plopping dramatically back down on the couch.

"I just can't believe Troy Bolton hasn't gotten laid yet. Even _Jason's_ gotten laid. By two different girls!" Zeke laughed.

"It's not funny!" Troy defended, again deciding to drown his sorrows in his glass of beer rather than talk more about his problem.

"You're right, it's not. So do something about it, Troy. Talk to her!" Chad said.

"I have. She always just says she's not ready and she gets mad at me like I'm trying to push her, which I'm not. I just don't understand why she doesn't even want us to do, well… you know," Troy said, not wanting to take his comment any further.

"Is your dick weird or something?" Zeke laughed.

"What? No it's not _weird_. Why would you even ask me that?"

"I don't know," Zeke shrugged, "Just trying to cover your bases, man."

"Ugh," Troy said, "You two are no help." He leaned forward and set one of his empty plastic cups onto the floor before resting his head in his now empty hands.

"Well, what are we supposed to do? Make Gabi hot for your cock?" Chad laughed.

"Shut _up_!" Troy groaned.

Thankfully, Chad decided to be a good best friend and diverted the attention away from Troy's lackluster love life and towards a story about something that had happened in one of his classes. Troy pretended to be interested in Chad's story, but his mind was still reeling. He wanted so badly to lose his virginity to Gabi. They'd been dating for so long and he really did care deeply about her. Sure, their relationship had seen its share of difficulties, most notably their breakup during the summer before their senior year, but other than that things had been pretty good. He couldn't for the life of him understand why after two years, Gabi still wouldn't be ready for even _him_ to touch _her_. Every little thing she did made him feel so good that he didn't understand why she didn't feel the same. He couldn't help it as his mind wandered back to Zeke's comment. What if there _was_ something wrong with him. He took good care of himself, was in great shape, tried his hardest to treat her well. So what was the problem?

"Earth to Troy!" Chad said, waving his hand in front of Troy's eyes, "What's going on in there?"

"Just thinking…" Troy said, taking a long sip of his lukewarm beer before starting in, "What if it's me? Do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"Troy, half the girls in here would bang you in a second. It's _not_ you," Chad said, gesturing around the room at the many girls who were occasionally looking over in their direction.

"Then what is it?" Troy demanded, though neither Chad nor Zeke could provide him with an answer. He raked his hand through his already messy hair. "I need more alcohol."

Without saying another word, he struck out in search for something stronger than the cheap draft beer he'd been consuming. His whole body felt tingly under the influence of the four beers he'd drank, but knew that he was going to need a lot more than tingling limbs to put his sexual problems out of his head. In the kitchen, he was none too surprised to see Sharpay hitting on the guy running the keg. She had also made the decision to attend the University of Albuquerque, while her twin brother Ryan had been accepted at the University of New York into their drama department. Even though Sharpay had insisted that she had no interest in going out to the East coast where it got cold, everyone had been able to tell that her real feelings on the matter were quite different. Everyone suspected that she hadn't been accepted into the program, but also agreed that the current situation suited her quite well. In New York, she would have been one in a sea of thousands of other talented female actresses, but here in New Mexico, she was still the queen bee. She had pledged the Tri Delta sorority that fall, and since the Tri Delts and the Betas were linked by decades of history, it was not uncommon to see every single Tri Delt at every single party at the Beta house.

"What's up, loser?" she asked him with a smile. Ever since their big talk the summer before their senior year, they'd actually been friends. Not the best of friends, but friends nonetheless.

"I need something else to drink," he said to her, dropping his empty glass into the nearly overflowing garbage can.

"There's lots of beer," she said motioning towards the keg, but he shook his head and motioned to her glass full of something red and fruity looking.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked.

"You want one of these?" she asked, laughing lightly.

"Not that exactly, just what went in it. I need something a little harder than beer tonight," he told her. She smiled knowingly and opened one of the cabinets, taking out a bottle of vodka and handing it to him.

"Now that's mine, so don't go giving it to everyone," she said, examining him as she said it, "You look upset, is everything okay?"

"Not really," he admitted, pouring about a shot worth of vodka into a clean glass before downing it, almost gagging on the harsh taste.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Not really," he repeated, dumping more alcohol into the cup before finishing it off again, "Shit, I hate vodka."

"Then stop drinking it," she sassed, attempting to take the bottle from his hands. He swatted her away and did a third and final shot before finally relinquishing the bottle back to its rightful owner. "Wow, something must really be bothering you." He just scowled at her, not even bothering to thank her for the booze before making his way back to the guys. They'd now been joined by Jason and he groaned. Now the conversation was sure to become asinine, he thought to himself as he headed over, already feeling the shots he'd done affecting his behavior. He bumped into a girl on his way over.

"Shit, I'm sorry," he said. She looked him up and down discreetly before responding.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled before watching him walk away.

"Dude, that chick totally wanted you!" Chad exclaimed, putting a beer into Troy's hand. He had no idea where Chad had gotten it from, but drank it anyway.

"So what? I have a _girlfriend_, remember?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, a girlfriend who won't have sex with you," Chad retorted. It was just then that they all realized that Sharpay had made her way over to them.

"You and Gabriella haven't had sex?" she asked, a thoroughly shocked expression on her face. Troy groaned and slapped a hand over his eyes. The last thing he wanted was for everyone to know about his and Gabriella's situation. And, the more people who knew, the better the chance was that Gabriella would find out that he'd been talking about it with other people. That was a possible ending to the situation that Troy did not want to happen at all.

"Go away, Sharpay!" he said.

"Oh don't get pissed at me just because you're horny," she laughed, sitting down on the edge of the couch right next to him. "So, how are the rest of you this evening?"

"Fine, I guess. Just trying to cheer Troy up," Chad said.

"How? With alcohol poisoning?" she asked, watching him finish off yet another beer.

"He's only had a few beers," Zeke shrugged.

"Yeah, and the three shots he did in the kitchen," she told them.

"If he wants to get drunk, how is that any of your business?" Chad asked. Even though everyone had been on much better terms with Sharpay lately, he still had no patience for her when she decided to cop a diva attitude. That, and she always seemed to think that she knew what was best when it came to Troy, something that did not bode well with him or with Gabriella.

"It's not. And I don't care, I was just asking you if this is how boys solve each other's problems, that's all. No need to be an ass about it, Chad," she said, rolling her eyes as she took a sip of her drink.

"Why is everyone talking about me like I'm not here?" Troy asked, amazed at how far away his voice sounded. His head was buzzing and his face felt completely numb. He knew that he was officially drunk, but didn't want to let that on to everyone, because then they wouldn't let him drink any more.

"We're not," Chad said.

"Yeah right," Troy mumbled, struggling into a standing position and headed for the backyard. He didn't expect anyone to come after him, in fact, he didn't want them to. All he wanted was to sit down somewhere with better air circulation. The air inside had become stifling and it was all he could do not to rip off his shirt to alleviate some of the heat. But, knowing that doing so would have been incredibly awkward and weird, he instead decided to escape outside. He found a spot by a tree that was relatively quiet and far away from the house and he sat down next to it, leaning his back up against the rough bark. For several minutes, he enjoyed sitting there thinking of nothing but the feeling of the bark digging into his back through the thin fabric of his shirt, but his reverie was broken by another body sitting down next to him. He had expected to see Chad, but instead saw Sharpay, inspecting him from over the top of her glass as she took a sip.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong now that your judgmental friends aren't around?" she asked, nudging his arm. On any normal day, he wouldn't have told Sharpay anything personal, but the combination of his distressed mood and the alcohol coursing its way through his system made him decide that maybe he could trust her.

"I just don't know what to do," he said, shoving her back lightly.

"About what?"

"Me and Gabi," he said hesitantly, "I'm ready to go further and she's not. It's just getting frustrating."

"Well I would think so. I thought you two had been doing it since junior year," she admitted. He frowned and grabbed her drink from her hands before taking a sip.

"That's strong," he said, handing it back to her.

"Yeah, and I've had like five of them. I'm drunk and you're boring me, tell me more," she smiled.

"It's just that I really care about her, and I want to respect her wishes, but I'm just so fucking horny I can hardly stand it," he said, his voice hardly louder than a whisper, "I don't want it to be a problem in our relationship, but it's starting to be. She won't listen to me when I try to talk to her about it and I'm just really frustrated."

"As well you should be," Sharpay said, "I can't believe you two haven't slept together. I mean, I really can't believe it. Any normal girl would have slept with you forever ago."

"That's what I always liked about Gabi. She's _not_ a normal girl. But, I just don't know how much longer I can go before…"

"Before what?" she asked. He shook his head, deciding against voicing aloud what had been churning in the back of his head for months now. "Well, at least there are always blowjobs, right?" She was teasing him, but his hesitation told her everything she needed to know. "You're not even getting blowjobs? Is she insane?"

"No, she's not insane," he defended, "I don't know what the deal is."

"Troy, this is crazy. You have to fix it."

"And how do you suggest I do that?" he inquired, half out of annoyance and half out of true curiosity.

"You either break up with her, or you find it somewhere else."

"You're suggesting that I cheat on her?" he asked incredulously.

"You deserve someone who really wants you, Troy. And trust me, there are a lot of girls out there who would give you everything you want and need and more."

"But, I _like_ her," he said.

"Fine, but do you like her enough to continue to not have your needs met? You're not being unreasonable, Troy. You're not acting like some horny teenager."

"That's certainly what it feels like," he said, "I wouldn't even know how to go about finding it somewhere else. I don't think I'd be very good at that, not that I would _want_ to be good at cheating."

"What you need is someone who understands your situation and who would be discreet. It couldn't be a random hook-up, you wouldn't know whether or not to trust her."

"But I don't know anyone like that, someone who's single and who knows both… of us…" he said, suddenly noticing the way she was looking at him, "Sharpay… you're not serious."

"Why not, Troy?" she asked, leaning in a little closer, "I am a master at keeping secrets, and I would be more than willing to do whatever was necessary to make you happy." It had been so long since he'd had someone look at him like that, like they wanted to devour him in every way possible. Gabriella never looked at him that way any more. He knew that they were both really drunk, and that Sharpay would never have been so forward if she wasn't so intoxicated.

"We can't do this," he said, "_I_ can't do this to Gabriella."

"I understand. But if you change your mind, you know how to get a hold of me," she smiled before standing and walking back towards the party.


	3. The hangover

Troy woke up the next morning with a raging hangover. He probably would have been okay if he would have stopped with what he'd consumed before he went outside, but once he'd gone back in, the guys had talked him into playing a few games of flippy cup, and that had pushed him way over the edge. The walk back to their dorms had been interesting, especially when he had to try to pretend to be sober in front of the lady checking IDs at the front desk. Chad had hardly been able to drag Troy up their floor. Once inside their room, Troy vaguely remembered eating half a bag of potato chips, taking a few sips of water, and then passing out face down on his bed.

He groaned loudly as he attempted to peel himself from his comforter. He reeked of beer, sweat, and had greasy potato chip crumbs all over his clothes.

"Christ…" he groaned, groping around for the bottle of water which he tried to drink all in one sip. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so sick and as soon as the water was gone, he collapsed back down on his side and stared at the wall. He would have turned on the TV to draw his attention away from the almost oppressive nausea churning in his stomach, but knew that Chad would bitch about the noise to no end. He was really picky about his sleeping environment.

"You all right down there?" Chad asked, still-half asleep in the top bunk.

"I think I'm dying," Troy said, only half joking.

"Just try to sleep it off," Chad replied, immediately falling back asleep after speaking. Troy sighed. He knew that Chad was right, but couldn't make his brain be quiet long enough to fall back asleep.

Sharpay had offered herself to Troy last night. He'd known her for most of his life, and sure, he was well aware of the fact that she'd had a crush on him for a long time, but he'd never thought she would go that far. She had basically told him that if he had sex with her, she would never tell anyone. That and that he deserved someone who would give him whatever he needed. He couldn't help but agree with her on that point. As much as he truly cared about Gabriella, he'd been thinking for a long time about how to handle the situation. He knew that if he broke up with Gabriella over something like fooling around that he would look like the world's biggest asshole, but the longer it went on, the more he feared no end was in sight. If their views on something that important didn't align, then how could their relationship last? He thought that if you cared about someone deeply, then you showed it to them however you could. More than anything, he wanted to make her feel good and she wouldn't even let him do that.

With a dissatisfied groan, he rolled over and tried to let sleep overtake him. Just as he had almost cleared his mind enough to drift off, his cell phone started to ring. It took his several rings to drag himself out of bed and to search for his phone in his jeans. He wasn't surprised to see that it was Gabriella calling, a picture he'd taken of her grinning for his camera phone displayed on the cover.

"How's the hangover?" she asked him without even waiting for him to say hello. He just groaned and laid back down.

"Terrible."

"I told you not to drink so much," she said in a sing-song voice and he was perfectly well aware of the fact that she was mocking him. He covered his head with a pillow, trying to make his conversation at least a little bit private from Chad. "You didn't do anything stupid last night did you?"

"Besides try to drink an entire keg?" he joked, but was happy that he could answer her honestly. "No, I didn't do anything stupid."

"Well that's good. Alcohol can make people do stupid things," she replied. Troy found himself laughing nervously. Sharpay's offer had been tempting, and he knew that if he was single, he probably would have taken her up on it in a second. But he didn't think that he was desperate enough to cheat on Gabi quite yet.

"It's probably a good thing you didn't go. Jason did a keg stand and then threw up all over the kitchen. It was disgusting," he told her.

"Yeah, I got a lot of work done, too. I thought maybe you could come over tonight. Maybe we could get dinner and watch a movie. You know, just the two of us?" she asked.

Troy had heard the same spiel hundreds of times when the evening had ended in nothing more than cuddling, but he still couldn't help but get his hopes up. As much as he liked hanging out with Gabriella, it was like their lack of sex life had become the huge pink elephant in the middle of the room that neither of them could talk about. She knew about his discontent but just kept telling him that if he really cared about her, he wouldn't push it, so he didn't.

"Sounds great, what time?" he asked. She told him to come over around seven, that Taylor and Chad had already made plans, so she'd be gone by then. He agreed to be there and then hung up, groaning loudly as he rolled over again.

"Do you have to talk so loud?" Chad asked, sounding considerably more awake than he had a few moments ago.

"Sorry, it was Gabi," Troy explained, again fighting his way into a sitting position, "I am _so_ hungover."

"We need some McDonald's… stat," Chad said, slowly climbing down the end of the bed, "Grease is the only cure."

"Agreed. You're driving, though," Troy said, pulling his jeans on before putting on his sunglasses. Even the dim lighting in their room made his head pound harder and he knew that the harsh daylight would not help matters.

"After your drunk ass made me have to drag you home last night, I don't think so," Chad said, tossing Troy's keys at him. With his reflexes greatly lessened by his hangover, the keys bounced off his chest and landed on the floor between them.

"I _hate_ you," Troy groaned, bending down slowly to pick them up before following Chad out the door and down the hallway. Once they were in the car, Troy started almost on autopilot towards the closest McDonald's.

"Last night was crazy," Chad said with a laugh.

"That's an understatement," Troy sighed. Chad shot him a questioning look, so Troy decided to fess up about what had happened. "Sharpay came out and talked to me when I went outside last night. And since she overheard that, she offered me her own solution."

"Which is?"

"Sleeping with her." Troy waited for Chad to respond, but when thirty seconds went by without anything, Troy finally ventured to look towards the passenger seat to find Chad staring at him slack-jawed.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked.

"Nope, she said that she would keep it a secret and that I deserve to have someone who will give me whatever I want," Troy shrugged.

"What did you say?"

"I said no, of course," Troy said incredulously, turning into the parking lot.

"I can't believe her! Who _does_ that?" Chad ranted as Troy made his way into the drive-thru, "I thought she and Gabriella were kind of friends now."

"Not good enough friends, I guess," Troy said.

"I can't believe she offered to help you cheat!" Chad started, "Although…" Troy hesitated a minute before looking over at his best friend. He'd known Chad long enough to know that tone of voice and it rarely meant anything good.

"I don't think I like where this is going," Troy said before pulling up and ordering both of their usuals. Chad slapped some money in Troy's hand before launching back in.

"Maybe you should do it. Now hear me out, don't look at me like that," Chad scolded, taking the two large Cokes that Troy was shoving in his direction. "Maybe you should do it and get all of your pent up sexual frustration out and then be done with it."

"We both know it wouldn't be that easy. There's no way that having sex with Sharpay Evans wouldn't end with some major drama."

"_And _broken eardrums. You _know_ that girl is one hell of a screamer," Chad laughed, prompting Troy to crack up with him and the slightly nerdy high school aged boy working the window to look at them with wide eyes. They shared another laugh as they drove away from the window. "I think we just scarred that kid for life."

"That or gave him some very interesting spank bank material," Troy offered. They were both feeling a bit better by the time they got back to their dorm room and ate their Big Macs ravenously before getting situated on the futon to watch whatever game they could find on TV.

"So, you're going to hang out with Gabriella tonight while Taylor comes over here?" Chad asked. Troy just nodded and stretched. "What are you guys going to do?"

"Dinner, probably watch a movie. The usual," Troy stated, standing up and examining himself in the mirror before deciding that he definitely needed a shower before he headed over there. He still smelled like he'd been partying all night. So, he gathered up his shower things and headed for the door. After getting ready to go, he was just heading for the door when his cell phone started to vibrate in his pocket letting him know that he had a text message. He pulled the phone out, expecting to see Gabriella's picture, but instead saw a name he wasn't used to seeing on his phone.

_The offer still stands…_

_Sharpay_


	4. The confession

The whole walk to Gabi's dorm, Troy tried to shake off the strange emotions Sharpay's text message had brought about. Now even his best friend was saying that he should take Sharpay up on her offer, and that was exactly the last thing he'd needed Chad to suggest. He needed everyone to tell him that Sharpay was ridiculous and that he was doing the right thing by not giving in to temptation. It wasn't even so much that he wanted Sharpay, it was more just knowing that he could have everything he'd been wanting. All he had to do was tell her yes.

He shook his head as if to rid it of all those thoughts before raising his hand to knock on Gabi and Taylor's door. Taylor had passed him when Troy was leaving his dorm, so he knew that Gabi would be alone in the room. Even though he knew that he could just go in, he still did the courteous thing and knocked. She answered the door a few seconds later wearing a snug pair of jeans and the shirt Troy had bought her for her last birthday, an off the shoulder jade green sweater that hugged her in all the places Troy had been hoping for.

"Hey," she smiled, moving onto her tiptoes so she could give him a kiss.

"You look fantastic," he grinned, kissing her again before following her into the room.

"I thought you'd like it," she answered, heading over to her desk where a big Applebee's To Go bag was sitting, "I got you your favorite."

"Zesty Ranch Chicken Sandwich?" he asked.

She nodded and handed him his plate before both they both headed over to the futon where she already had a movie on pause. He sat down next to her cross-legged, balancing his food precariously on his legs. A look around the dimly lit room brought to his attention the fact that she'd lit a few candles. His stomach did an excited flip and he tried not to let it show that he was snooping around when he was supposed to be watching 'The Island,' one of his favorite movies. It had been a really long time since Gabriella went to so much trouble to make an evening special. Lately, they'd gotten into quite the rut in that department, to both of their faults. Troy was coming out of the basketball season, and Gabriella's fall semester had been particularly intense. Troy couldn't help but think that something about tonight was different. She'd gotten him his favorite meal, picked one of his favorite movies of all time, and was wearing an outfit she'd known that he would love. He was feeling rather confident as he stood to throw away their plates and went back to the couch to move things along.

As per usual, he sat down right next to her and placed his arm around her shoulders, his other hand holding hers. He knew that her intentions for this evening were different than what they had been in the past. He could _feel_ it. Even though he felt strange sitting there with his girlfriend unable to think of anything other than whether or not their evening would go beyond kissing and minimal groping, it had pretty much the only topic of conversation he'd been engaged in since the previous evening, and he couldn't help it as those thoughts started to invade his mind again.

His thumb lightly traced over the back of her hand, causing her to look up at him, an opportunity he took full advantage of. In one quick movement, his lips were on hers.

"You're not wasting any time," she laughed lightly before recapturing his lips. He pulled back slightly, trying to gauge the look on her face to see if she was teasing him or not. When he decided that she was, he leaned in, his lips a whisper away from hers before he responded.

"I'm sorry, you just look too good to resist," he told her, knowing full well that the comment sounded corny, but meaning it nonetheless. His hand trailed slowly up her arm before burying itself in her thick hair. A little, almost inaudible moan came from somewhere deep within Gabriella's throat as his tongue swept across her lips, as if asking permission to enter. He held her tight against him, afraid that if he relinquished his hold for even a second that she would pull away like she always did. Whatever he was doing must have worked, because she kept angling herself closer and closer until she finally gave in and hitched a leg over his own, straddling his body and putting herself at a much more comfortable angle to continue kissing him.

He knew that his efforts from this point were crucial, that he had to be careful not to push things at all or otherwise she'd stop everything and they'd go back to just watching the movie. Even though he wanted desperately to pull her body closer, he let her keep her distance for the time being, knowing that if she wanted to heat things up, she'd do it on her own. Her hands gripped at the sides of his shirt, pulling it up slowly, exposing his toned and tanned flesh one inch at a time. He let her pull his polo over his head and drop it onto the futon beside them, her fingertips lightly skimming over his abs. Now that he knew this was okay, he let his hands move under the back of her sweater, touching her soft and smooth skin. Before he even had the chance to move smoothly into removing her shirt, she pulled back from his kiss and did the honors for him, dropping her shirt alongside his own before smiling seductively at him and scooting herself closer on his lap, putting herself in direction contact with the hardening bulge in his jeans. His eyes practically rolled back in his head as she accidentally swiveled against him as she tried to get more comfortable and it took every ounce of his self-control not to move in order to continue to wonderful friction.

"Do you like it?" she asked glancing down at the lace red bra she was wearing, "I bought it yesterday." He wanted to say that as much as he liked it, he would like it better on the floor, but he reeled in the impulse.

"You look very sexy," he told her, running his hand up her side to lightly touch the material at the side of her breast before leaning forward to gently kiss the skin he found just above the top of her bra. She wound her fingers through his hair, urging him to continue, which he did eagerly, lavishing her chest and cleavage with kisses. He took a deep breath, knowing that his next step was bold, but wanting so badly to take it that he couldn't hold back any longer. His hands slid around to her back where he let his fingers rest on the clasp of her bra, waiting for her to hesitate.

"Troy…" she warned and he had to bite back a disappointed groan. "Go lock the door." He looked at her in shock before helping her off his lap so he could bolt to the door. Before she even really missed his presence on the futon, he was back with his mouth on hers again. As his hands deftly undid the back clasp of her bra, he slowly pulled the crimson straps down her arms before pulling back to look down at her.

"Beautiful," he said simply before motioning for her to lie down, which she did after shoving their discarded clothing onto the floor and pulling him towards her by the belt loops. They had gone this far before, not often, but he couldn't help but get his hopes up as he felt the warmth of her bare chest press against his and one of her legs bend up to press lightly into his now aching hard-on. He moaned into her mouth, unable to take in the whole situation. He'd been complaining about their lack of sex life and there they were, halfway naked and very aroused.

After several more minutes of making out and tender touches, he knew that it was time to try it one step further, not to push things, but just because it was where they were naturally headed. His head was spinning with lust as his hand made its way to the button fly of her jeans, ready to pop open each button in one swift movement. But, as soon as his fingers found the brushed metal, her hands were on his, halting his movements.

"Troy, don't," she ordered, instinctively scooting herself backwards on the couch and effectively further away from him.

"Why not?" he demanded, not too happy with himself because of the exasperated tone of his voice.

"Just _don't_! Why can't you just let things be what they are?" she asked, shoving him fully off of her and immediately searching out her bra on the floor so she could put it back on.

"Why should I?" he asked. The conversation sounded so familiar even though they'd only had it twice before. Most of the time he'd just let her stop things and they'd gone back to doing whatever they had been doing before everything had started. But only on this occasion and two others had he stood up for himself and attempted to demand an explanation for her disinterest.

"Because I asked you to!" she spat, grabbing her sweater and yanking it back over her head.

"And why do we always have to do everything according to Gabriella?" he asked, standing to face her, "I'm not asking for sex here, Gabi."

"Of course you are!" she cried out, "Look at you!" Troy wouldn't have had to even look at her to know that she was gesturing at the erection that refused to go down.

"I'm not going to apologize for the fact that you turn me on! Shit, you're my girlfriend! It's a _good_ thing! And I have never _once_ pushed you farther than you've wanted to go, so don't stand there and act like I'm some sex-starved rapist or something."

"And don't _you_ act like there's something wrong with me for not wanting to have sex!"

"I'm not!" Troy groaned, raking his fingers through his hair, "I just don't understand how after two years of dating you won't even let me take your pants off. God forbid, I want to touch my girlfriend!" She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself and Troy found himself pleading with her now. He wanted an answer, any answer to her reluctance. "Gabi, why don't you want me to touch you?"

"I do," she sniffed, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks, "I do, Troy, it's just…"

"Just what?" he asked, his mind immediately going to a million terrible places. What had she gone through in her past that would make her afraid of getting too physically close with him? She clapped her hands over her face and sat down on the futon.

"I can't tell you," she sobbed. He pulled on his shirt quickly before sitting down next to her and rubbing his hand up and down her back in the most comforting way he could manage despite his ever growing curiosity.

"You can tell me anything," he said softly. He leaned in to hug her close, but she pulled away from him.

"Actually, this is probably the one thing that I can't tell you," she whispered, "Oh god…"

"Gabi, this can't go on any more. You've obviously been hiding something for a long time and you need to get it out. Just tell me," he said encouragingly, thinking that he was giving her the perfect opportunity to finally tell someone about whatever atrocity had taken place in her life. She mumbled a response into her hands, one that he thought he heard, but wasn't sure so he asked her to repeat it.

"I'm not a virgin," she said louder, but her declaration didn't answer any of his questions.

"Gabi, did someone do something to you that they shouldn't have?"

"No!" she said, realizing the weight of his question, "Well, not in the way you're implying, I guess."

"Okay, so you slept with someone before you moved to Albuquerque, no big deal, babe," he lied as best he could, "I mean, I wish you would have told me but-"

"Troy… it wasn't before I moved to Albuquerque," she said, trying not to make eye contact with him. His heart sunk to his stomach and he had to try his hardest not to throw up on the spot.

"What? When? Who?" he demanded, standing up instinctively. She just started to cry again and he found himself getting incredibly annoyed with her inability to control her emotions long enough to get out with it all so he could finally know the truth.

"I didn't want to tell you, and I didn't want you to find out at all. I knew that as soon as we had sex, you'd know that it wasn't my first time and I just couldn't do that to you!" she sobbed, avoiding his questions.

"So instead you decided to avoid _everything_? Do you have any idea what this has done to me, Gabi? I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what the fuck I was doing wrong that you never wanted to touch me or for me to touch you!" he shouted, "Now answer me. Who was it and when did it happen?"

"It happened when we were broken up," she whispered and his mouth dropped open.

"We were broken up for like, a day, Gabi! You had sex with some random guy in the _day_ we were broken up?" he managed. She took a minute to formulate a response before looking up at him through her lashes.

"Not so random…" she said simply. Troy had always thought that the expression was stupid and cliché, but he could have sworn that his blood literally started to boil.

"Who was it?" he asked again, pausing out of necessity against his intense emotions between each word. Nothing on earth could have prepared him for the answer that came from her lips.

"Ryan."


	5. The real story

**Note:** I've been getting several comments from people about the pairing of this story. Please read the summery. It says that it's Troyella for now, which obviously it has been so far. But, it also says that it may change. Use your own discretion in reading this story, please. I have this whole story planned out, but don't want to give everything away in the summary. Ya dig? :) Enjoy, and sorry for the delay!**  
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Troy couldn't remember a time in his life when he had ever been so angry or upset, and especially not both at the same time. His conversation with Gabriella was still reeling through his mind. She'd had sex with _Ryan Evans_ of all people during her one opportunity to do so. Troy would never have admitted to his friends that he'd been waiting for Gabriella because she'd been the one he wanted to lose his virginity to, but it was true. He had waited for her to be ready because he wanted his first time to be with someone he really cared about, and she _obviously_ hadn't felt the same way. She hadn't even cared enough to talk to Troy about what had happened. Instead, she'd hidden it and been strange and cold, accusing Troy of being pushy when all he was trying to do was what boyfriends and girlfriends did. Especially when they'd been dating for two years.

He hadn't had to think very hard about where his next destination would be and found himself storming across campus towards the Tri Delta house. After a brief explanation of who he was and who he was there to see, one of the girls took him to Sharpay's room. Without even knocking, he opened the door roughly and went in before slamming it back shut, startling her from her computer screen.

"Troy? What's wrong?" she asked, immediately standing to face him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

"Tell you what?"

"About Gabi and Ryan!" he shouted. She shook her head in confusion and took another tentative step forward.

"What about them?" she asked exasperatedly, sensing that Troy wouldn't be getting directly to the point without the proper prompts.

"Your brother fucked my girlfriend!" Troy exclaimed. Sharpay rolled her eyes and turned away, heading over to sit on her bed.

"Ryan's gay," she said matter-of-factly, "He has a boyfriend, so whoever told you that was just trying to get a rise out of you."

"Gabi told me," he told her simply before sitting down next to her.

"Oh my god," she gasped, "When did this happen?"

"The one night we were broken up."

"That's not possible," she said.

"No, she just told me that's why she hasn't slept with me, because she knew that I'd be able to tell that she wasn't a virgin and-"

"No, Troy. I mean it isn't _possible_. You and Gabriella broke up the night before the talent show, right?" Troy nodded. "Ever since we were little, Ryan and I have stayed up really late getting ready for the show the night before. Even though we weren't exactly on the best of terms that summer, we still did that. He was passed out on a cot across the room from me the whole night. Trust me, he snores, I would have known if he left."

"Well, what the hell?" Troy asked before burying his face in his hands.

"I think we need to call my brother," she stated before pulling her phone out of her pocket and finding the right button on her speed dial.

"And say what?" Troy mumbled, not even bothering to move his hands. She grabbed one of his hands away from his face and put her phone in it so Troy could see that it was already ringing.

"Better figure it out fast," she shrugged. Troy reluctantly pressed the phone to his ear and waited, hoping that it would just go to voice mail so he could have some time to think things through. Now that he knew Gabriella had lied about when she slept with Ryan, he didn't know what to think. He couldn't believe that she would have made the whole thing up, so he didn't know what it all meant.

"Shar, can I call you later? I'm a little busy," Ryan asked.

"Um, it's not Sharpay. It's Troy," he said, suddenly hearing a lot of shuffling on the other end of the phone.

"Oh! Troy! Hey, what's up?" Ryan asked before whispering, "Thad, stop it!"

"I need to ask you something…" Troy started, taking a deep breath before continuing, "Did you ever have sex with Gabriella?" There was a long pause on the other end of the line, followed by an uncomfortable laugh.

"Of course not, Troy. You know I'm-"

"Gabi told me, Ryan. You really don't have to lie."

"Shit, Troy… I don't know what to say. Yeah, we did. One time, the summer before senior year." Troy closed his eyes tightly and tried to hold back the onslaught of emotions that overcame him after Ryan's admission.

"Okay… but when?"

"The night before the talent show, when you two were broken up," Ryan said quickly, sounding well-rehearsed.

"You stayed at Lava Springs that night, Ryan. I know all of this, so tell me the truth." Ryan sighed loudly into the receiver.

"It was the night of the staff baseball game. We all went to Chad's house for an after-party since his parents were out of town and had way too much to drink. Gabriella was really upset and it just… it just happened, Troy. I'm really sorry," Ryan said sincerely.

"Yeah, me too," Troy said quietly before handing the phone back to Sharpay.

Without saying another word to her, he stood and left the room. He didn't know where else to go, so he headed back towards his and Chad's dorm room. After receiving so much information in such a little amount of time, Troy's brain couldn't do much more than process his basic body movements, getting his legs to move him to the correct door and to fit the right key into the lock. He barely even heard Chad yell out at him, since he'd barged in on Chad and Taylor in bed together. All he could do was move towards his bed so he could finally sit down and push the heels of his hands into his eyes trying his hardest to stave off the tears that were threatening to spill.

In all his years of being friends with Chad, he'd never once cried in front of him, and he especially didn't want to do so in front of Taylor, as well. He knew they must have been struggling around to find their clothes, but his heart was pounding so hard and fast, all he could hear was the thudding of his pulse. It wasn't until Chad sat down on the bed next to him that Troy was able to focus on the room again.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?" Chad asked, putting his hand on Troy's shoulder. Knowing that if he tried to talk, his voice would probably crack and he'd definitely start crying for sure, he decided to just shake his head instead, still not removing his hands from his face. "Did something happen with Gabriella?"

"I have a text message from her," Taylor said, taking a moment to read it before sucking in a fast breath, "Oh… Chad…" Troy felt Chad get up and assumed that he was going to read whatever Gabriella had sent to Taylor to make her respond like that. He heard Chad swear under his breath before his weight returned to the mattress beside him.

"Troy… man. I don't know what to say," Chad admitted as the door opened and closed.

Troy knew that Taylor would probably be heading over to talk to Gabriella. As soon as he heard the door click shut, it was like he could finally relax and the tears he'd been fighting off finally came. He cried harder than he could ever remember crying in his entire life. He wasn't even exactly sure _why_ he was crying since the main emotion he was feeling was anger. He couldn't remember ever being more angry with someone than he was with Gabriella at that moment. She had cheated on him. She had gotten drunk and slept with Ryan. Troy couldn't even count how many times he could have slept with other girls. They'd been throwing themselves at him since he was a sophomore. He could admit that the situations were different. He hadn't been as good of a boyfriend that summer as he could have been, but he had been trying his hardest to earn a scholarship, something his family had desperately needed him to do. Yes, he'd had to spend a lot of time with Sharpay to do it, but he hadn't_ wanted_ to do that. He had felt so blindsided when Gabriella had broken up with him because she'd never come and talked to him about the fact that she was upset. She'd been passive aggressive in that situation, just like she apparently had been for the last year and a half. Instead of being honest about her feelings, she'd kept them bottled up inside. Everything hurtful that could have been dealt with in time with work instead became a huge blow; an ending that wasn't really necessary.

"Troy, you have to breathe, man. You're going to hyperventilate," Chad said, awkwardly placing a box of Kleenex in Troy's lap. Troy hated that Chad had to be there while he bawled like a five year old with a skinned knee, but just told himself that it was something that best friends did for each other in really awful circumstances.

He tried to take Chad's advice and took as deep of breaths as he could against his hitching lungs. Still not ready to make eye contact with Chad, he grabbed out a few Kleenexes and wiped off his face before doing so.

"I'm really sorry," Troy said.

"Hey, it's okay. We all cry sometimes… maybe not like _that_," Chad teased, trying his hardest to make Troy smile. Troy tried to laugh, but just couldn't find the energy to do so. They both just sat there for a few minutes while Troy continued to compose himself.

"Did you know about this?" Troy asked, assuming that Gabriella's text message to Taylor had said everything.

"I don't even really know what's going on. The text just said that she'd fessed up to you about how she lost her virginity. No matter how you spin that, it's pretty bad."

"She had sex with Ryan the night of your party after the staff baseball game two summers ago."

"What? Not at _my_ house, they didn't!" Chad said, "I didn't drink anything that night, Troy and I was trying to keep an eye on Gabi for you. But all of a sudden she was gone and to be honest, I was too worried about keeping people downstairs to have noticed if she left with someone. I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," Troy shrugged, about to tell Chad to get up so he could go to bed when Jason and Zeke barged through the door. As soon as they saw Troy clutching onto a handful of Kleenex with red, puffy eyes, they stopped short.

"What the hell is going on?" Zeke asked, immediately grabbing Troy's desk chair and pulling it over to face Troy and Chad. Jason followed suit with Chad's chair and Troy hoped that something would magically swallow him whole. When Troy made no efforts to explain the situation, Chad felt that he needed to step in.

"Troy just found out that Gabriella cheated on him two summers ago with Ryan," Chad explained.

"But I thought Evans finally came out of the closet this year," Zeke said.

"Why was Ryan in a closet?" Jason asked.

"Jason… just be quiet," Zeke said with annoyance. Jason shrugged and sat back in his chair, waiting for the conversation to continue.

"Anyways… they apparently slept together the night of my party after the baseball game, and Gabi just owned up to it now."

"Well, why now? Obviously no one knew about it for this long… what made her come clean now?" Troy sighed and Chad looked over at him, knowing that Zeke and Jason had no idea that Troy and Gabriella hadn't had sex yet. Troy shook his head, telling Chad that he wasn't ready to let out all of his emotional baggage to their other friends.

"I don't know, man. But let's go get some food and let Troy take it easy for awhile, all right?" Chad offered. Zeke and Jason both agreed and they left. As soon as the room was officially empty and he heard Chad lock the door, he buried himself under the covers and tried to fall asleep, knowing that the only way he could handle the situation was with several hours of sleep under his belt.


	6. The invitation

"Troy, you have been in bed for two days, you have to get up," Chad said, repeatedly poking Troy in the head with the pen he'd been doing his homework with. Troy groaned and slapped the pen away before burying his head under the covers again. Chad was right. Troy had only gotten up to go to the bathroom and eat an occasional sparse meal ever since the night he'd found out about Gabriella and Ryan. "I'm serious. You smell, I'm sick of listening to you sighing, and again, you smell. Plus, Taylor's coming over and she wants to talk to you."

"I don't care. Leave me alone," Troy said from beneath his comforter, "She's just going to talk to me for Gabriella and I don't want to hear it."

"You should probably hear her out. You need to hear what Gabi has to say."

"Oh! This coming from the guy who was encouraging _me_ to cheat on _her_ a few days ago," Troy spat, suddenly finding himself ready to leave the room.

He threw off his covers, grabbed his shower stuff and stormed out of the room. He shampooed his hair aggressively, as if doing so would wash away all of the terrible thoughts still making their way through his head. For the last two days, he'd been moping and feeling incredibly sorry for himself, unable to think about anything but the horrible mental images of Ryan and Gabriella together. He had thought that he was in a good relationship. He had always been honest with Gabriella. She knew that he wanted to go further sexually in their relationship. That was really the only thing he could have lied to her about, but had chosen not to because he knew that being dishonest about something like that could really hurt their relationship in the future. Once he was dried off, he secured the towel around his waist and made his way quickly back down the hallway, sighing loudly when he saw Chad sitting with Taylor on his bed watching TV. Not particularly caring too much what anyone else thought at the moment, he just hid himself behind his closet door to get dressed instead of being polite and going back to the bathroom to do so.

"Troy, I need to talk to you," Taylor said hesitantly.

"Oh gee, about what?" he asked sarcastically before shutting his closet door and sitting down at his desk.

"Gabriella really wants to talk to you, but you've had your phone off," she said. Troy glanced at his phone which was sitting next to his computer and it informed him that he had 52 missed calls. "It was just the one time, Troy."

"Is that supposed to make it okay?" Troy asked her incredulously, "Because it really doesn't."

"Of course not, but things between the two of you were really weird that summer and-"

"No, Taylor! Things were really weird that summer for _her_! I was fine in our relationship. I know that I was distant and I've apologized to her for it _so_ many times. The problem is that she never once came to talk to me. Instead, she just got drunk and fucked Ryan," Troy ranted, "I thought you and I were friends, Taylor. I can't believe you think that what she did is okay."

"I don't!" she said quickly, "I would never advocate cheating, I'm just trying to say that you two need to talk it out. You can get through this, you've gotten through things before."

"Nothing like this," Troy stated, "She betrayed our relationship and I _never_ would have done that to her." Without another word, he snatched his phone off the desk and left the room, heading towards Gabriella and Taylor's dorm. The last thing he wanted to do was even look at her at that moment, but he knew that their conversation was inevitable, and he wanted to have it when he was feeling like doing anything other than cry for the first time in days. His hands clenched the whole way, he rehearsed the conversation in his head, practicing what he would say to her given a number of different things she could say to him. When he reached the door, he knocked once before opening it and going inside, finding Gabriella relaxing on the futon watching a movie. Her hair and makeup was done, and she looked nothing like the wreck Troy was sure he must have resembled.

"I didn't think you would come talk to me," Gabriella said, not moving from her place on the futon. Troy didn't sit beside her, instead he just towered in front of her with his arms crossed instinctively across his chest.

"You lied to me," he stated simply, staring down at her.

"Yeah Troy, I know that I should have told you what happened, but I didn't think you would have ever forgiven me. I was just so upset that night and-"

"You're _still_ lying, Gabriella! Just stop!" he pleaded, "I know when you had sex with Ryan and it's _not_ when you originally said it was… you cheated on me. How could you do that?"

"I was so upset with you, Troy! You'd been ignoring me _and_ your friends all summer and I was really upset and I just drank way too much. He offered to give me a ride home and it just happened."

"Sex doesn't just happen! If you had cared about me at all you wouldn't have done that!"

"Troy, that's so not fair! I loved you, I still love you-"

"Don't even think about saying that to me right now. If you really loved me, you would have told me. You've been living a lie and making me feel like shit because of it, and you don't do something like that to someone you love. I would _never_ have cheated on you! I had an offer just the other day to do just that and I turned it down because…" Troy paused briefly as he felt himself choking up again, "Because I wanted my first time to be with you. If you'd made out with Ryan or fooled around with him or something, then that would be one thing. But we were in a serious relationship and you lost your virginity to him instead of me. That, I will never understand. I could have _never_ done what you did." They just stood there looking at each other for several seconds before Gabriella spoke again.

"What do we do, Troy? Can we fix this?" she asked softly.

"What is there to fix? A relationship full of lies and deceit? That's nothing! This relationship is _nothing_ that I thought it was."

"So what, we're just over? I messed up a year and a half ago so we're over now?"

"No Gabriella, you didn't mess up. Messing up would have been doing it and then telling me about it right after. Yeah, we would have fought. Yeah, we might have even taken a break, but you didn't do that! You just kept something incredibly important and crucial from me instead. How could I possibly give this relationship another chance knowing that you're capable of doing something like this? Would you take me back if I did this to you?" She just looked at him, sniffing as a few tears spilled down her cheeks before slowly shaking her head. "I didn't think so." And with that, he was gone. He didn't say goodbye because he couldn't. More than two years of being together was over in an instant. The worst part of all was knowing that he'd still have to see her all the time. She was Taylor's best friend and roommate and there was no way he could avoid seeing her forever.

As he was making his way back across campus, he heard someone calling out to him. Once he had located the source of the voice, he saw that Sharpay was running down the sidewalk towards him.

"Troy! What's going on?" she asked as she finally stood before him.

"Um… well let's see. I've spent the last two days in bed and Gabriella and I just broke up. I'm fantastic!" he lied, giving her a fake smile and thumbs up before rolling his eyes and walking past her, continuing on his way. He didn't mean to be rude, but just wasn't in the mood to talk about it. The sound of her flip flops followed him, so he knew that he wasn't off the hook just yet.

"I'm really sorry, Troy," she said, and he found himself amazed at the fact that she almost sounded sincere, "I can't believe my brother would, or even _could,_ do that. It was really shitty."

"Essentially," Troy muttered, running his fingers through his still damp hair.

"Well, I have just the solution to get your mind off things for a little bit," she started, "My sorority is having a surprise date party tonight as in "Surprise! There's a party tonight, go find a date!" Do you want to come with me?" He looked down at her and saw her looking up at him, her eyes full of hope.

"As friends," he said, knowing full well what that hope in her eyes really meant.

"Oh, of course!" she said, "This is going to be great! Just dress nice, something blue or purple would be good, and meet me at the Tri Delta house at 8. Sound good?" He mustered up a smile and nodded. "See you then!" With a loud sigh, he watched her scurry off in the direction of her sorority house before he went back to his dorm. A look at his watched showed that it was seven already, meaning that he had to eat dinner, get ready, and make his way to the house all in an hour. He found Chad alone in the room and assumed that Gabriella had called Taylor over.

"I know it sucks, but I think you did the right thing," Chad said as soon as Troy was fully in the room.

"Yeah, I know I did, but it doesn't make it suck any less," Troy replied honestly before heading for his closet and shuffling through the few dress shirts he had, settling on a deep blue one and a pair of black dress pants.

"What's with the clothes?" Chad asked as Troy started to change.

"Sharpay caught me on the way over and invited me to some date party her sorority's having tonight. I said I'd go, but I don't really know why."

"A date party on a week night? Weird…" Chad started, "But don't you think it's a little soon to go out on a date?"

"It's not a date. We're just going as friends," Troy explained as he attempted to neatly tie a silver and black striped tie around his neck.

"Just be careful and don't do anything stupid," Chad warned, "You'll only regret it tomorrow."

"I think I can take care of myself, _Dad_," Troy rolled his eyes before starting to fix himself some of the leftover pizza from their fridge. Chad just shrugged and settled back into his homework, trying not to get distracted by Troy doing his hair and repeatedly checking himself out in the mirror. At quarter to eight, Troy put his wallet in his back pocket and headed for the door. "Well, I'll see you later." Chad smiled and shook his head lightly, making one final comment as the door shut behind Troy.

"Yeah, we'll see about that."


	7. The date party

Troy walked as slowly as he could towards the Tri Delta house, wanting to prolong the start to his evening for as long as possible. He had absolutely no idea what he was getting himself into. Obviously, he'd never been to a sorority party before, but all he could imagine was a room full of Sharpays and he wasn't sure he was up for that. Sharpay was best handled alone and in small doses, he'd discovered over the years. The fewer people she was around, the more she was actually herself. She'd spent years developing a cold persona that he was sure had to be exhausting to keep up most of the time since he knew what she could really be like. He trudged up the front porch, already hearing loud music and laughter inside, like he was joining a party already in progress rather than arriving precisely when instructed.

He let himself in the front door as he'd seen a guy do a few seconds prior and immediately felt uncomfortable. Everyone seemed to know one another in the sea of bodies, but he only barely recognized a few faces. Self-consciously, he fidgeted with his tie and started into the crowd, hoping to find Sharpay as quickly as possible. He did, a few minutes later, in the kitchen serving up some punch that he assumed was about seventy percent alcohol.

"There you are!" she grinned, putting a pink plastic cup into his hand and placing a chaste kiss to his cheek.

"It's a little crazy in here," Troy laughed nervously, fighting the urge to mess with his tie again and instead taking a sip of the drink in his hand. Looking into the cup, he saw a few pieces of fruit floating inside and looked at her suspiciously. "Jungle juice?"

"We know how to have a good time," she smiled, grabbing a cup for herself before leading the way out of the kitchen, "And don't look at me like that. You just need to loosen up and try to have some fun tonight. I know that it's not the best day for you, but try, okay?" He forced a smile and chose to drink again instead of responding.

The entire walk there, he'd been preparing himself for what he assumed Sharpay would do, like parading him around or pretending he was her boyfriend. Hell, she'd basically done it in the past, so why wouldn't he have assumed she'd do it when he was _actually_ her date. But, as they mingled with all of her sorority sisters and their dates, he was completely shocked to find her introducing him to everyone as her friend and nothing else, just like she'd promised.

One glass of jungle juice and three orange slices later, Troy was feeling quite relaxed and very buzzed as he followed Sharpay into the kitchen for a refill. As she bent over to retrieve the ladle from the large tub full of juice on the floor, her skin tight pink halter dress clinging to her ass, Troy couldn't help it as his alcohol-laden brain went to a thousand inappropriate places. To keep himself from saying or suggesting something inappropriate, he instead started to chew lightly on the edge of his cup.

"Troy? Ready for more?" she asked, smirking at him in a way that lead him to believe she knew exactly what he'd been looking at before she'd stood up. He cleared his throat and handed her his cup, hoping he wouldn't turn bright red.

"Can we go outside for a few minutes? I'm a little warm," he said before fishing out the apple slice floating temptingly in his cup. She nodded before linking her arm through his and leading him through the back door and out onto the porch. They found an unoccupied bench and sat down, their arms touching as she moved close to him to seek out his warmth in the chilled night air. The scent of her perfume filled his nose and the suddenly lust-driven parts of him longed to seek out all of the places where she had meticulously applied it while getting ready.

"I like your dress," he said lamely, breaking the ice with the only thing he could think to say.

"Yeah?" she grinned, "Thanks. I'd been waiting for a chance to wear it. I thought I'd wear it on a date sometime, but this has been my first opportunity."

"I thought this wasn't a date," he teased, sipping his drink and somehow almost managing to spill the red liquid on his shirt.

"Careful," she said, smoothing his tie before speaking again, "So, how are you doing, really? Was it terrible of me to ask you here tonight?" He couldn't answer her questions. Her behavior the entire night had been so strange, so unlike the usual Sharpay that he couldn't keep it in anymore.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" he asked, "Like… you're _really_ being nice to me and you tried to break me and Gabriella up in the past… I assumed you'd be happy!"

"Well, I'm certainly not upset about it, Troy. But I know that this is hard on you, and I just want to be your friend. Above anything else, that's what I've always wanted," she replied sincerely. He could see that her cheeks were flushed and she'd doubtlessly consumed quite a bit of alcohol before he'd gotten here. If he'd learned anything about Sharpay that year, it was that she was incapable of lying when she was drunk.

"I want to be your friend, too," he told her, giving her a half-smile before taking a sip. After they sat there in comfortable silence for a few moments, she slapped his thigh lightly and stood up.

"It's a little too heavy out here, and I invited you here for some fun. So let's go have some," she smiled, extending her free hand to him and pulling him off the bench. They made their way back to the kitchen for another refill and then went into the huge living room where people were now dancing. Troy had never been one to enjoy that kind of party, but couldn't deny that just letting loose in a darkened room where everyone was too drunk to notice if he looked like an idiot sounded pretty enticing.

He could finally do whatever he wanted. He'd always been curious about sorority parties, and here he was attending one. Being single didn't feel great after being part of a couple for so long, but it didn't feel terrible either. He suspected that that had something to do with the fact that he had been lied to for most of his relationship. It seemed to take away a bit of the sting since he could spend his time being angry rather than depressed.

By the time his third cup was gone, the Everclear and whatever else that was in the jungle juice had long since gone to his head. Somehow, Sharpay had gotten rid of their cups without leaving his side and they were both getting lost in the thumping beat of the music. She slid her hand from his waist around to his back and moved herself closer to him, standing up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

"Are you having a good time?" she asked, pressing herself into him.

"You know what? I actually am," he smiled, lightly trailing his hands up and down her upper arms, "The hangover I'm going to have tomorrow might even be worth it."

"You're going to be hungover, huh?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," he laughed, "That stuff is intense." She gave him a half smile and grabbed his tie before turning to walk away, pulling him behind her. "Where are we going?"

"My feet are tired, let's go hang out up in my room," she said, "You want another drink before we go?" He thought about it for a minute before nodding. "I thought so." They grabbed two more before heading up the stairs to her bedroom, only stumbling slightly on the way up. She opened the door to her small private room and shut it behind her once Troy was inside.

"How'd you manage to get your own room?" he asked, moving over to sit down on her bed.

"Oh… I basically whined and complained until they gave in," she smiled, lightly kicking her shoes into her closet. Troy didn't doubt the truth of that statement for a second, having been privy to Sharpay's shrieking and nagging many times before. "But it was totally worth it, don't you think?"

"I like living with Chad, but sometimes I do think it would be nice to live on my own," he replied honestly, nursing his drink and trying to ignore how close Sharpay was sitting to him. It wasn't that it had been so long since a girl was close to him in a room alone, it was more just knowing that she would actually do the things he couldn't help but think of doing to her. His eyes grazed over her body in a way that he hoped would be inconspicuous, not wanting her to know how badly he was wanting her.

"Troy…" she said coyly, "I'm sorry about what I said to you the other night."

"No you're not," he laughed lightly before taking a long, almost needy sip of his drink. He grabbed the neck of his tie and loosened it, allowing his throat better access to full breaths. The entire room was buzzing around him and his face felt slightly numb. He almost didn't notice as Sharpay stood and faced her bathroom door, her back towards him.

"Troy? Would you unzip my dress, please?" she asked.

"What?" he exclaimed.

"I want to change into something more comfortable. Will you help me?" He gulped noticeably before setting his drink on her bedside table and walking hesitantly over to her. His fingers gently found the top of her zipper and pulled it slowly down, all the way to where it exposed the top of her matching pink thong. Troy sucked in a breath as he took in her fully nude back. "Thanks," she said, moving to walk into the bathroom, but without thinking about it, he grabbed her arm and held her in place. He turned her around and pulled her close before lowering his mouth to hers. When Sharpay had offered herself to him not a week prior, he never thought that he would have taken her up on the offer. But now, the situation had changed and he was just drunk enough to take her up on her offer.

His mouth repeatedly sought hers as he backed himself back to the bed. When his legs collided with the edge of her mattress, his body forced him to sit down and she smiled down at him, standing between his legs as she untied the neck of her dress and let it pool to the floor leaving her just in her thong before him. Without breaking eye contact with him, she linked her fingers around the thin sides of her panties and pushed them to the floor to join her dress.

"I think you're a little overdressed," she stated, reaching forward to loosen and remove his tie and unbutton each button of his dress shirt before pushing it off his shoulders. Deciding to help her out, he pulled his undershirt over his head. Giving him a smirk, she placed a hand on each shoulder and pushed him back onto the mattress before setting to work on removing his pants and boxer briefs. Troy lay there while Sharpay worked to remove his socks quickly, but then suddenly realized what kind of state he was in. Just as he looked down to see the erection straining against his stomach, Sharpay dropped to a kneeling position between his legs and wrapped her small hand around his dick.

"What are you doing?" he asked, practically stammering as her hand slowly pumped up and down.

"Writing a best-selling novel," she sassed, "What does it feel like I'm doing?" His breath caught in his throat as the feeling he had been anticipating for so long finally came as her lips wrapped around the head of his cock while her hand continued to work its way up and down. He'd imagined what it would feel like to get a blow job, he'd jerked off to the thought of it, and he'd certainly listened to his guy friends describe them, but none of it compared to the feelings Sharpay's mouth was drawing out of him with every well-placed movement of her tongue and every slow movement that brought more of him into her mouth. He could feel the familiar tingles start to course through his body as his orgasm approached, but as soon as they started, Sharpay's mouth was gone and the cold air of the room hit him. She laid out next to him, pressing her body into his side before kissing him again. He fisted a hand in her hair and instinctively pulled her on top of him, unable to help the moan that escaped his throat as she accidentally rubbed up against his now painfully hard erection.

"Troy?" she asked, "Do you want to?" He didn't even consider an alternative as her very warm and wet center moved over him again, deliberately this time.

"God yes," he breathed, kissing her again, his tongue immediately seeking out her own. She struggled against him for a second before giving in to his kisses for a moment before planting her hands on his chest and pushing herself back into a sitting position, her body straddling his hips. She leaned over to reach her bedside table's drawer, removing a square foil package from within. After only a small amount of drunken fumbling, they were ready to go. Sharpay climbed off of him and laid down on her back, reaching for Troy's strong arms and pulling him on top of her.

"Oh, I want you so bad," she sighed as he positioned himself at her entrance, cradling his body between her propped up legs. His mouth stopped its work on the side of her neck, and he lowered his weight onto his forearms, bringing his face close enough to kiss her more comfortably. All he had to do was move his hips just slightly forward and it would be over. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's great," he said before kissing her again as he thrust forward as slowly as he could, burying himself inch by inch inside of Sharpay. His fingers gripped the bedspread almost violently as he fought for control. Nothing he'd ever experienced had felt even close to how amazing this felt. Until she wriggled her hips playfully, he hadn't realized that he wasn't moving. He mumbled an apology into her shoulder before pulling out and sliding in again. As soon as he found a rhythm he could maintain without losing control, Sharpay was able to match it with her own hips, causing little mewling noises to escape her mouth as each thrust brought his body in direct contact with her clit. Troy knew that he wasn't going to last long. It had been way too long since another person had been involved in one of his orgasms and it had never been like this before, no matter how good those two handjobs from Gabriella had been. He felt it building again and couldn't help it as pace sped up considerably.

"Troy," she gasped, "Just go ahead." He felt bad for not being able to last long enough for Sharpay to finish, but almost as soon as the words had left her mouth, it felt like his entire body was exploding and all he could see were the stars that had suddenly appeared behind his eyelids.

"Oh god…" he said, trying to make his arms keep him from crushing Sharpay's body beneath his. As soon as he could effectively use his limbs again, he rolled off to the side of her. "I'm sorry you didn't…"

"It's okay, I promise," she smiled, kissing his shoulder as she snuggled into his side. She pulled a stray blanket from behind one of her pillows and tossed it to cover their bare bodies just as sleep started to overtake Troy. It was the hardest he'd slept in months.

* * *

**Note: **No flaming, please. I said this could happen and the pairings will be changed in a day or two to avoid having things ruined for people. Thank you sooooo much to those of you who have been supporting this story. It has meant so much to me to see all of the comments. You guys are awesome! 


	8. The morning after

**Note:** I'm sooo excited! I have an outside site for all of my HSM fiction now. I'll still be posting here as well, but if you're interested in seeing the character pics I chose, the soundtrack I picked, etc., please go check it out! The link can be found in my profile!! All comments about this story can still be left here! Can't wait to see what you guys think of this chapter and I'm sorry it took me so long to update!

* * *

Troy awoke the next morning, and immediately, a wave of nausea overcame him. He pushed himself from the bed and ran towards the toilet he saw through the only open door in the room and slammed the door shut behind him. After emptying the contents of his stomach, he flushed the toilet and leaned back against the wall trying to fight back the urge to vomit again. It was only at this point that he realized he was completely naked and then he remembered exactly where he was and what had happened the night prior. He sighed loudly before working his way back into a standing position, ignoring the queasiness still present in his stomach, and peeked out the door to see Sharpay sitting placidly on the edge of her bed, a pink satin robe tied around her body. 

"Are you okay?" she asked before standing to retrieve Troy's underwear from the floor. She took them to him, and then got each of them a bottle of water out of her small refrigerator and met him back at the bed once he had somewhat dressed himself.

"Um… I think I'm okay," he said, taking one of the bottles from her hand before sitting down. He was all too aware of his state of undress,_and_ the fact that her eyes kept trailing discreetly over his naked torso. Flashes of the previous night kept forcing their way into the forefront of his mind, imagines of Sharpay writhing beneath him, of her mouth bobbing up and down on his hard dick, of how it had felt the first second he entered her. He practically shook his head to rid it of the thoughts and sipped his water politely.

"I don't mean your stomach, I mean _you_," she said, taking his shirt from beside her on the bed and setting it in his lap. He gave her a half-smile before pulling it over his head. He had heard stories about the awkward morning afters that could happen, but this one seemed to top all the ones he'd heard about. Not only had he had random drunken sex, but he had random drunken sex with _Sharpay_, a friend. It wasn't like he could just leave and never see her again, not that he pegged himself for the type of guy to do that anyway. Why had he done this with someone who was at least in some ways part of his circle of friends? Would things be awkward? Would everyone be able to know just from looking at them that they'd slept together? As soon as that last thought entered his brain, he wanted to smack himself for even thinking it. Of course they wouldn't know, not unless either of them said anything. His friends were good guys, but not always the most observant people.

"I know what you mean, and I'm fine," he answered, again drinking his water and trying not to look uncomfortable.

"Do you want to go get some breakfast?" she asked and he nodded eagerly. Now that he was fully awake, he knew that only copious amounts of food and about a gallon of water would help to settle his stomach.

"IHOP?" he suggested, already standing to pull on his jeans.

"Geez, eager much?" she said, rolling her eyes before smiling at him, "Just give me a second to get dressed." Troy pulled his shoes on and tied them slowly while Sharpay got ready quickly. He would never have imagined that Sharpay would ever have consented to going out in public without showering and taking 3 hours to get ready, but as she emerged from the bathroom, she looked fresh, like she hadn't just slept for several hours. "Let's go!"

Troy was incredibly glad to have Sharpay with him as a buffer, because every girl they passed on their way out looked at them with raised eyebrows. They made their way to Sharpay's silver Audi convertible that she'd traded her pink Mustang in before she'd come to college, and they were off to their breakfast. With each second that passed, Troy found himself less uncomfortable and more himself again. They joked about the past, nothing that dealt with the prior night or his relationship with Gabriella, but it felt good to just _be_ around her. She said what she meant, and he knew without a doubt that she would never lie to him about anything. He'd heard for years about how sneaky girls could be, but he'd never wanted to believe it. Now, he was forced to admit that even the girls you think you have all figured out can turn out to be deceivers as well.

They got seated quickly, since it wasn't a weekend morning, and Troy glanced at his watch, seeing that he still had about five hours until his only class of the day, an afternoon English class he'd done the reading for while laying around the last few days. He ordered a stack of pancakes with bacon and Sharpay ordered an egg white omelet with ham and green peppers for herself. As Troy sucked down about half of his glass of water in one long sip, Sharpay asked him the question he'd been dreading.

"So, what now?" she asked as she idly stirred her Diet Coke, staring into its depths before raising her eyes to meet his. He searched them quickly, hoping to find what she wanted him to say before he could answer. That way, if he was going to hurt her, he could at least do it diplomatically. But, she was just looking at him with no hidden emotion. She really wanted to know.

"Sharpay," he started, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table, "I just got out of a really long relationship. I'm not looking for that right now-"

"Oh, Troy. I know that," she smiled, "I meant what now, like. Do we do this again? Do we _not_ do this again? Because, I'd be up for it." Troy exhaled loudly. There she went with her offers again.

"I don't know…" he said. The overactive, mind-of-its-own part of his anatomy was screaming for him to say yes, but his brain was trying its hardest to fight against it. He knew that he should say no, but he couldn't bring himself to make an answer, so he left his answer ambiguous. She smiled a little to herself and sipped her pop. He wasn't sure that he totally trusted that smile, but didn't have time to think about it as their food was brought to the table and he started to gorge himself with rich, syrupy pancakes and greasy bacon. As the bottom of his plate finally became visible again, he let himself relax back into the uncomfortable booth while she slowly finished her breakfast. Their conversation was lackadaisical, but familiar, and as she drove him back to his dorm, he felt himself almost sad to leave her presence. But then, it came again.

"Well, Troy," she smirked as she pulled up in front of his building, "If you ever want to get together again, just give me a call." He felt his stomach twist nervously at the thought of ever actually booty calling Sharpay, but just smiled anyway. He wanted to say something to her, but knew that anything he came up with would sound weird or forced or unnecessary. So, he just got out of the car and waved as she drove away. The second her car was out of sight, another bout of nausea swept over him and he found himself running full speed through the building towards his floor's bathroom. Not really wanting to lose the delicious breakfast he'd just eaten, he fought against the nausea until he was sure he wasn't going to throw up. He wanted to blame it on the hangover that was still bothering him, but he wasn't sure it was the only cause. As he made his way to his and Chad's room, he kept replaying the night in his head. Yes, the sex had been good, great even. Sharpay definitely knew what she was doing. He opened the door and found Chad sitting at his desk. When he turned to see that it was Troy, he just smiled and shook his head.

"I told you I wouldn't be seeing you last night," Chad said. Troy just looked at him, staring him down as he grabbed his things, preparing to go take a shower.

"Just save it, Chad, okay? You were right. What, do you want a fucking cookie?" Troy spat.

"Yeah, do you have one?" Chad laughed, "Now will you calm down and come talk to me. I want to know what happened."

"I don't want to talk about it," Troy stated. Chad gave him a knowing look.

"Yes you do, now come spill." Troy sighed and walked over to sit in his desk chair. "What happened?"

"Well, I got there and there were a ton of people there. It was crazy. And there was Jungle Juice, which was just bad in itself. We both drank a lot, and eventually we went to hang out up in her room and things… happened."

"Like…" Chad said, gesturing for Troy to continue.

"You know…" Troy said, unable to actually bring himself to say it.

"She… sucked your dick?" Chad suggested, prompting Troy to nod, "Nice. Was it good?"

"Yeah, Chad, it was good," Troy said, wondering how his guy friends talked so openly about their sex lives. He found the whole matter to be very uncomfortable, especially since it was with someone they all knew so well. "And then, we had sex."

"No shit! Good for you, man!" Chad said, "You're not freaking out are you?" When Troy didn't answer, Chad looked over to find Troy looking very green. "Dude, what's wrong with you? Are you that hungover?"

"No. I just keep getting these urges to puke. It sucks," Troy said, closing his eyes until the feeling subsided. "And yeah, I think I'm freaking out a little bit."

"Why? You finallygot laid, this is a good thing, Troy. I mean, I know Sharpay might not have been your first choice but-"

"Chad. Gabriella and I broke up yesterday. And I had sex with Sharpay_yesterday_. How do you not see the problem with this?" Chad couldn't think of an answer, so he just shrugged. "Okay, so I know that Gabi cheated on me, and that she lied to me, and I'm pretty much more pissed at her than I have ever been at anyone in my life, but I still feel weird that I did something that huge the day we broke up."

"I swear, you're the only guy on the planet who would wish he _hadn't_ lost his virginity," Chad teased.

"I didn't say that!" Troy said quickly, "I just wish I would have waited a little longer, that's all."

"Troy, I'd say you'd waited long enough," Chad said, before turning back to his computer. Troy took that as his cue to go shower, so he did. When he came back, he was startled to see Gabriella sitting in his desk chair with Chad nowhere in sight.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. She stiffened at the towel-clad sight of him and immediately stood.

"Sorry, I'm waiting for Taylor to get back from the bathroom. I thought we'd be gone before you got back," she explained, "I'll just go wait in the hallway." He opened his mouth to tell her that it wasn't necessary, but she was gone before he got the chance. His heart was pounding, but not solely out of the sadness or regret he'd expected to feel the first time he saw her again. Instead, he was outraged by her audacity. Why hadn't she just waited in the hallway to begin with? And why the hell had she thought it was okay to sit in _his_ chair. They had a futon that would have sufficed just fine. He got dressed quickly and was about to go out into the hallway to give her a somewhat edited piece of his mind when Chad came in.

"Dude, I am _so_ sorry! They blindsided me by showing up without any warning and Taylor drug me with her pretending to need to go to the bathroom because she wanted to tell me what she had been forced to deal with all night. Gabi's being really weird apparently."

"What does that mean?" Troy asked. Chad shrugged and plopped down on the futon.

"She wouldn't elaborate," Chad told him, "But I'll get it out of her eventually, I have my ways!" Troy couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm sure you do."


	9. The text message

For the next several days, Troy felt like an escaped fugitive when he walked around campus. He was always on the alert for the two female faces he wasn't quite ready to deal with, and did his best to go only from his dorm to his classes. He hadn't even gone to the Union for food and was getting really sick of fast food and Easy Mac. As he lazily stirred yet another cup of macaroni and cheese, Chad burst through the door, noisily finishing up a conversation on his cell phone.

"Troy, you have _got_ to go eat at the Union. It's taco night!" Chad said, tossing his backpack onto the futon before collapsing next to it.

"Nah… I'm good here," Troy lied, staring at his dinner with disdain before digging in reluctantly. The chewy, overcooked noodles were hard to stomach, especially when he knew that he was only a five minute walk away from soft shell tacos piled with lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. Without even taking a second bite, he dropped the entire thing into the garbage before turning to face Chad. "Tacos, huh?"

"I'll go with you in a minute," Chad offered, "I haven't eaten yet either, and I know you want a buffer in case you run into Gabriella."

"Or Sharpay," Troy muttered before heading to his closet to rummage for his black flip flops.

"Has she called you yet?" Chad asked, getting out the materials he'd need to do his homework when they got back from dinner. Troy shook his head and let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank god, no she hasn't. No offense to her. The sex was great and all, but I'm just not ready to be around that much temptation just yet," Troy said, "I just need to be single for awhile and _not_ sleep around. I just need to… be for awhile. If that makes sense."

"Of course it doesn't make sense," Chad laughed, standing to join Troy at the door, "None of your thought processes ever make sense, but I put up with you anyway." Troy rolled his eyes and started out the door and towards the Union. He could almost taste the spicy meat as they made their way across campus, chatting about nothing in particular. They filled their trays with food before heading to a table where Zeke and Jason were already seated.

"Hey Troy! Finally back out in the real world?" Zeke asked. Troy gave him a pointed look before sitting across from Chad.

"How're you doing?" Jason asked, "You know, with the Gabriella thing?" Troy shrugged.

"It's definitely weird being single," Troy said, "I haven't been single for a long time…"

"So enjoy it, man! You can do whatever and _whoever_ you want, so go do it!" Zeke said encouragingly. Troy tried his hardest not to make eye contact with Chad. There was no way he could just offer up that he had slept with Sharpay, especially when Zeke had spent years trying to get Sharpay to go out with him. She'd placated him to some degree, spending some time with him, but had never agreed to go on a real date with him. Troy knew that Zeke would pretend to be happy for him, but in reality would be stung that Troy had been the one to get Sharpay in some way, especially since Troy didn't like her like Zeke had.

"Yeah, I think I just want to take it easy for awhile. I haven't been able to do everything on my own terms for a long time, so I think I'm just going to do that, not jump into some new relationship."

"You don't have to be in a relationship to get laid, Troy," Chad laughed. Troy just glared at him and was thankful when Jason broke up the conversation with a story from one of his classes earlier that day. Dinner had almost gone on without a hitch when Troy's cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. He was distracted, laughing along with the guys as he pulled it out and flipped it open to see that he had a text message. Without looking to see who it was from, he opened it and almost dropped his phone onto the table. Realizing that he had just drawn everyone's attention to him, he snatched the phone and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Who was that from?" Chad asked. Troy just shook his head and laughed nervously.

"No one," he lied, rather obviously as his entire face turned red.

"You're not getting off that easily," Zeke laughed, "Now hand over the phone." Troy frowned at him before standing.

"No! Back off, it's not a big deal," Troy said definitively before grabbing his tray and walking away. Once he'd dumped its leftover food into the trash can, he tossed it on the pile of other dirty trays and headed for the door. Before he could get there, however, Chad was at his side.

"Sorry about that, man. Who's it from?" Chad asked sincerely as they hurried from the Union and back towards their dorm.

"Sharpay…" Troy mumbled, his fingers closing around the phone in his pocket as he was tempted to read the message again to see if he had read it right the first time.

"Well? What does it say?" Chad urged. Troy sighed and slapped his phone into Chad's hand. Chad's hand covered his mouth so he didn't laugh out loud.

"Holy shit! You _have_ to text her back and go over there!"

"Chad, I can't just go over there! I just told you, I want to just be chill for awhile." Chad wrapped his arm around Troy's shoulder in a friendly way.

"Troy, you can't turn down an opportunity like this. Girls don't just say stuff like that to guys if they don't mean it. And trust me, Sharpay means it," Chad laughed, releasing Troy from his grip, "So go!" Troy looked at him incredulously.

"No, I'm not going and that's final. So just drop it!" Troy said, shoving open the door to their dorm building and heading immediately for their room. They both stopped short as they saw Taylor sitting on the floor outside their room reading a book.

"Hey babe! I didn't know you were coming over," Chad smiled, taking both of her hands and pulling her into a standing position so he could kiss her hello.

"After I got done with my homework at the library, I thought I'd stop by and since I was already all the way over here, I decided to wait for you," she smiled, gathering her things from the floor and then following the guys into their room, "So, how're you doing, Troy?"

"Are you asking me that or is Gabriella?" he asked with a sigh, sitting down on the futon.

"_I_ am," she said, sitting next to him after tossing her stuff onto Chad's bed, "_I_ want to know how you are."

"I'm doing okay," he said, looking over to Chad in the hopes of telepathically asking him if he'd told Taylor about Sharpay. Chad seemed to read his mind and shook his head discreetly, so Troy knew how to properly respond. "Just preparing for my new single life." She smiled understandingly before glancing at Chad and taking a deep breath. Troy couldn't help but be nervous as she looked at him in the way that he had come to associate with impending bad news over the years.

"I think you should know about how Gabriella's been handling the break up, and I really don't know how to tell you," she said. Troy shifted nervously, looking to Chad for reinforcements, but finding Chad staring blankly at the wall, telling him that Chad already knew what Taylor was going to tell him. He couldn't help it as his eyes narrowed slightly as he continued to stare Chad down, suddenly very pissed off at his best friend for hiding something that obviously wasn't going to be good from him.

"You're freaking me out, Tay, just get out with it," Troy said.

"She's gone out to parties every night since you first got in a fight and has hooked up with a guy every time. I don't know what she's trying to prove, but she's just going crazy." Troy's eyes went wide.

"She wouldn't even let me touch her and she's hooked up with a bunch of guys in the last few days? What the fuck?!" he spat.

"I don't even know what to say to her. You guys dated for so long, I can't believe that she would be out hooking up already, especially since that's why your relationship ended in the first place," Taylor said, "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, Troy, but I wanted you to hear it before you saw her or something."

"Wow…" Troy said, his stomach churning at the thought of Gabriella throwing herself at random guys. At least _he'd_ slept with someone he already knew. It wasn't like he had been looking to get laid, it had just happened. The fact that she had been out looking for sex proved one thing to him: it hadn't been that she didn't want to admit that she'd had sex with Ryan, she just hadn't wanted to have sex with _him_. He rubbed his hands hard over his eyes. "Are you serious?" She scooted closer and rubbed her hand comfortingly on his back.

"I've been miserable and she's out humping everything that moves?" Troy demanded, "Well fuck her. I thought that maybe some day we could be friends but… _shit_!"

"Troy," Chad said warningly, and Troy imagined that it was to remind him that he'd slept with someone already, too.

"No Chad, that was different and you _know_ it!" Troy shouted, not caring that Taylor had no idea what he was referring to.

"Yeah Troy, I know that, but just think about what you're saying before you freak out," Chad said quietly, stepping towards him. Troy took a deep breath to calm himself before nodding. Taylor cleared her throat lightly before standing up.

"I think I should let you guys talk," she said, reaching out to squeeze Chad's hand, "I'm really sorry, Troy."

"It's okay," Troy lied, giving her a weak smile as she left. But once she was out the door, he pulled back his foot and kicked the leg of his desk as hard as he could, immediately swearing out loud, and sitting in his desk chair to hold his foot in his hand.

"Do you feel better now?" Chad asked, trying his hardest not to laugh at Troy's temper tantrum.

"No, my foot fucking hurts!" Troy spat, digging his cell phone from his pocket and setting it on his desk before kicking off his flip-flop and gingerly rubbing his foot, "That was really stupid."

"Yeah it was," Chad laughed, "So, does it help you get over Gabriella at all now that you know she's a big slut?"

"Chad, don't say that," Troy sighed, not yet ready to admit that it was true, "What the hell am I supposed to think about this? Did I know her at_all_?"

"I don't know, man… she sounds pretty messed up, if you ask me. And don't get mad at me for saying that, it's true and you know it." Troy just sighed and outwardly groaned as Zeke and Jason came in without knocking.

"What'd you do to your foot?" Zeke asked.

"Troy decided he's mad at the desk," Chad joked.

"For what?" Jason asked. Troy made a face at him before picking up his shoe and throwing it at Jason. The last thing he needed was his friends to make asinine comments at the moment. He just wanted everyone to leave him alone so he could process all the information that had just been forced his way. Limping, he made his way over to the fridge and stooped down to hunt through its contents for a can of Pepsi. Chad had recently thrown a lot of random leftovers in the fridge and he had to search pretty hard to find his stash of pop.

"Hey Troy, your cell is buzzing," Zeke said, "It's a text from… Sharpay?" Troy whipped around to see Zeke holding his phone and reading the text with his mouth wide open.

"Zeke, don't!" Troy exclaimed too late. Zeke raised his eyes to meet Troy's and he read the text aloud.

"It says, 'Did you get my last text? I meant what I said. I want you inside me again, it's all I can think about.'"


	10. The next offer

"You fucked Sharpay?" Zeke demanded, prompting Troy to immediately rise to a standing position so he could face his friend directly.

"Zeke, I-" Troy started.

"You fucked _Sharpay_?" Zeke interrupted, "When did this happen?" Troy hesitated for a moment, trying his hardest to read the completely ambiguous expression on Zeke's face. Zeke hadn't talked about Sharpay for months, longer than that in any sort of serious way. The last thing he wanted was for one more person to get hurt in this whole mess.

"The other night," Troy explained, "Sharpay invited me to a Tri Delt date party and we had a lot to drink and it just happened. I'm so sorry." Zeke looked at him funny for a minute before laughing.

"For what?" he asked. Troy just froze in place, unable to understand exactly what was happening.

"For sleeping with Sharpay," he said incredulously, "I assumed you'd be pissed."

"Troy, I'm so totally over that. I just can't believe you didn't tell us about it, you fucker!" Zeke laughed, stepping forward to lightly punch Troy's shoulder. Troy sighed loudly and felt himself relax. "Troy, you need a drink."

"Not until the weekend, I'm totally behind on my homework," Troy stated, sitting down somewhat dramatically at his desk and staring at the large pile of notebooks and textbooks that had been silently awaiting him ever since the whole ordeal had started.

"Well, we'll let you get your stuff together, but we're going to a party on Friday night," Zeke said before practically dragging Jason out the door behind him. Troy leaned forward, resting his head in his hands.

"Do you really think Zeke is okay?" he asked Chad, not sure if he really wanted to hear the answer.

"I have no idea," Chad replied honestly, "Probably... and if not he'll just bake it out." Troy couldn't help but laugh at the image of Zeke angrily baking all night long in the basement kitchen of their dorm building until he wasn't mad at Troy any more. Grudgingly, he grabbed the top notebook off the stack, located the syllabus inside and started in on the first of his many make-up assignments.

By the time Friday night rolled around, Troy was more than ready for the party the rest of the guys had found for them to attend. It was another party at the Beta house, and Troy was alternating drinking the beer Chad had somehow gotten his hands on and getting ready. Once he and Chad had both downed two cans of incredibly mediocre beer, Troy announced that he was ready to head for the party. After they had gathered Zeke and Jason from their respective rooms, they all headed off, talking raucously about the fun they were going to have and how Jason was not allowed anywhere near any of the kegs for the entire night.

"Well, it's a Beta party so we know the Tri Deltas will be there," Zeke said, "Are we going to have to try to keep Bolton away from Sharpay all night?"

"I think if anything we'll have to keep _her_ away from _him_," Chad laughed, "After that text message. I mean holy shit, Taylor and I have been dating for years and she doesn't say stuff like that to me."

"Yeah, she doesn't have to, you're always practically humping her leg. She doesn't have to ask," Troy laughed, trying to divert the attention away from himself. He really wanted to believe that Zeke didn't care that he'd slept with Sharpay but still didn't feel like he could be absolutely certain. Once they'd arrived, they all got a beer and then headed for the back porch, the least crowded place at the party.

"So, Taylor and I are going to go away next weekend," Chad said. Troy raised an eyebrow and looked at him strangely since he hadn't heard anything about the trip yet.

"Yeah? Since when?" he asked.

"We decided this afternoon. It's hard for us to get any real time alone, so we're going away," Chad shrugged.

"So, basically, you're tired of having really fast sex before Troy or Gabriella gets home so you're going to a hotel somewhere in town so you can hump uninterrupted all weekend?" Zeke asked. Chad just looked at him for a second.

"Pretty much, yeah," he laughed, "But yeah, Troy. You've got the room to yourself all next weekend."

"Oh goodie," Troy rolled his eyes, "I can sit at home alone all weekend while you're off getting laid."

"You could be getting laid too," Jason offered.

"Oh yeah, cause it's just so easy to get girls to sleep with you." Zeke sighed loudly before leaning closer.

"Troy, it _is_ easy if you play your cards right," he said, "You just have to try to find the girls who won't freak out and call you eight million times afterwards. You have to look for the girls who just want some unattached sex."

"But I don't _want_ unattached sex!" Troy stated.

"Then what _do_ you want?" Chad asked him. Troy shook his head and took a sip of his beer.

"I honestly don't know. And I'm really okay with that," he stated before standing up and heading into the house. Almost as soon as he'd stepped inside, Sharpay appeared before him.

"Hey Troy, how's it going?" she asked. Part of him wanted to just blow her off and keep heading towards the beer, but another part of him wanted to yank her into the nearest closet for a fierce make out session. As soon as that last thought came into his head, he had to fight against the desire to make a face at himself. He had no idea why all of a sudden, after sleeping her once, he couldn't help but have inappropriate thoughts about her. The night before, his dreams had been riddled with images of her pleasing and teasing him in ways he'd never even imagined before. The mere memory of those dreams made his cock stiffen slightly and he shifted to keep it from becoming noticeable.

"Oh, it's fine. The guys are in rare form tonight," he sighed, holding his cup lower in an effort to shield the erection that continued to grow as his eyes traveled over the cleavage that was very evident due to the low swoop neck of her top. The thin black fabric fit her snugly and he willed his eyes to go anywhere but to her exposed and enhanced flesh. He knew that he certainly wasn't drunk enough to use _that_ as an excuse for his lewdness. She smirked at him, fully aware of his roaming eyes, but obviously decided to keep it to herself.

"Well, you probably need another drink then, huh?" she smiled. He nodded in agreement.

"Or ten," he laughed, following her into the kitchen where he refilled his cup of beer and she mysteriously showed up with something that looked as sweet as whatever she'd been drinking at the last Beta party. "Can't you just drink beer?"

"And get a beer belly? I don't _think_ so," she smiled, lightly patting her flat stomach.

"Hey! I drink beer and _I_ don't have a beer belly," he said. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't I know it," she said huskily, running a hand down the fully length of his stomach before turning to walk away. Troy took a deep breath to compose himself before heading back out to the porch to find Sharpay standing there talking to the guys.

"Look who we found," Zeke said, smiling knowingly at Troy as he walked up to join them. Instead of sitting back down, he opted to stand next to Sharpay. For some reason, if he was standing, he felt like he was in control of the situation and he _knew_ that the guys were probably planning to make some comments just to make him uncomfortable in front of Sharpay.

"Yeah, we were just talking inside," Troy said before taking an unnecessarily long drink of his beer, emptying over half the cup in one go.

"So, what are you up to tonight, Sharpay?" Jason asked. She shrugged.

"Just hanging out. This week was really stressful," she said.

"Oh come on, it couldn't have been all that bad," Chad said, trying his hardest not to smile. Sharpay rolled her eyes before looking up at Troy.

"You were right. They _are_ being assholes tonight," she stated, shaking her head and taking a drink.

"I didn't say-" he started, but for some reason decided to stop his comment. He'd wanted to finish and defend his friends, even though he basically _had_ said that to her inside. But, he had realized that she had just been teasing them, and they had picked up on this and were now laughing along with her.

"Can't help it," Chad shrugged, "Good gossip is good gossip." Troy looked around for an escape route or at least a reason to excuse himself. Standing there and listening to everyone talk about his and Sharpay's sexual encounter as if it was no big deal was not something he wanted to be part of. Even though she seemed okay with the fact that he'd told his friends, he still wasn't comfortable enough with sex to want to discuss it publicly and soberly.

"Yeah well that _gossip_ is none of your business, fro boy," Sharpay said sassily, grabbing Troy's arm and pulling him with her towards the house. "We need shots, Mr. Bolton." He couldn't help but laugh as she lead him to the makeshift bar in the living room.

"Oh we do?" he asked.

"Yes, and you're paying since you blabbed about Monday night to your stupid friends," she told him, sidling up to the bar and ordering four shots of tequila, "Now pay up."

"What if I don't _want_ to do any shots?" he challenged, but reaching for his wallet anyway.

"Well, you either don't do the shots and go home sad and alone, _or_ you do the shots and end the night with me."

"And what's the draw there?" he teased, shoving a ten dollar bill across the bar before accepting the shot glasses, limes, and two shakers of salt. She seductively licked her hand before sprinkling on some salt, all the while never breaking her eye contact with Troy.

"I think you already know the answer to that," she smirked before downing her first shot. Troy thought about it for a second, weighing the pros and cons of the situation. Having sex with Sharpay again would significantly complicate the situation, but he also had to reason that it felt more right than hooking up with someone random. As little as he wanted to admit it, he wanted desperately to be with her again, hoping that the second time could be even better. He had to figure that he'd get better at it each time he did it, and the desire to please _her_ this time started to consume him as he watched her wet her hand again with her tongue. Without giving it another though, he grabbed the first shot and did it with no preparation. The liquid felt terrible the entire way down, and he had to fight against his gag reflex to keep it from coming right back up. But as soon as his stomach was settled, he did the second and reveled in the feeling of warmth that almost immediately spread through his body. She smiled at him before handing him a lime. "Good boy."

"I'm not a dog," he stated, biting down hard on the lime before discarding the rind in one of the empty shot glasses. Slowly, she stepped up to him until her entire body was in contact with his.

"Oh I know that," she explained, "But I was really hoping you'd be up for some doggy-style later." By the time her sentence was finished, her lips were against his ear and his hand instinctively went to her waist. He bit back a groan as the weight of her words sank in.

"Shit," he mumbled, allowing his carnal needs to take control before fisting a hand in the back of her hair and pulling her mouth roughly towards his.


	11. The real Gabriella?

Troy vaguely remembered walking across campus, not so much because he was drunk, but more because he was so horny at that point, all he could think about was getting to Sharpay's room so he could slowly peel every piece of clothing from her body. The exposed parts of her flesh were taunting him as she walked slightly ahead of him, occasionally turning to catch his eye and smile at him. He was so preoccupied in his thoughts that he was startled to see the Tri Delta house suddenly in front of him and he allowed himself to be dumbly drug up the stairs to her room. Once inside, she dropped her purse on her desk before practically throwing herself at him, causing his back to harshly collide with her closed door.

"Sorry," she mumbled against his lips before hungrily kissing him again. Her tongue found his immediately, sliding slowly against his in a way that immediately made his dick fully harden and a low groan to escape his lips. There was just something about her, how he didn't feel like he had to be careful with her or pay special attention to what he was doing. Sharpay wouldn't outwardly protest his actions, and if she did have a problem with something, he knew that she'd just guide him in a new direction without even halting their actions. He could have stood there kissing her all night, but when he felt her hands slide underneath his shirt to touch the smooth skin of his back, his brain immediately shifted into a higher gear. His hands made their way to her waist and he lifted her, wrapping her legs around his waist and walking to her bed as best as he could while still kissing her.

With a smirk, he dropped her onto her back on the pristine white comforter, thoroughly enjoying the look of disgust she sent his way.

"Awww, don't look so pissy," he teased, reaching down and grabbing her left leg before slowly pulling off her wedge and tossing it over his shoulder. She just faked glared at him for as long as she could hold it before a genuine smile spread over her face. Instead of commenting, he just repeated the action with her other shoe before sliding his hands up her legs until he reached the button of her jeans, which he deftly popped open before sliding down the zipper. She wriggled, helping him out as he pulled her skinny jeans from her legs.

"Take your shirt off," she ordered huskily, drinking in every inch of his skin that was revealed as he did as instructed. Then, without taking anything else off, he dropped to his knees beside the bed and gently grabbed her calves, pulling her until her body was much closer to the edge of the bed. "What are you doing?"

"Do you have to talk _all_ the time?" he smiled, gently lifting her right leg and placing a kiss to the side of her knee. She looked like she was about to respond, but instead she just propped herself up on her elbows and watched as he sensuously kissed a path all the way to the edge of her panties. Despite her best efforts, she let a little whimper of anticipation slip. He looked up at her and smiled, stalling his movements for a moment.

"Being a little presumptuous, aren't you?" he asked, lightly tracing his fingertips over the thin sides of her panties. She rolled her eyes.

"Shut up and get to it, Bolton. I don't have all night," she said.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know we were on a time schedule."

"Is that a problem?" she smiled. He pretended to think about it.

"Actually it is, because I was planning on making this last a _long_ time," he stated before finally hooking his fingers under the thin straps and pulling them down her legs. She instinctively went to close her legs, but he gave her a look before gently nudging them back open, fully exposing her to him. His friends had always talked about sex, speaking only of themselves and how everything had felt for them. For so long, he'd been wondering what the other side was like. He'd been trying to get Gabriella to let him please her, but obviously that had never gone as planned. And now, here Sharpay was, ready, waiting, and as the painfully hard part of his anatomy noted, incredibly wet already. Even though his experience was minimal, he knew just from looking exactly what he wanted to do, and without a second thought, he leaned forward and ran his tongue up her slit before starting a gentle suction on her clit. She exhaled raggedly, reaching down to lace her fingers lightly in his hair, urging him silently to continue. Realizing that he had been partially neglecting her and he slowly slid two fingers inside her, starting a medium rhythm that she immediately started to match with her hips.

"Oh god, Troy!" she gasped, suddenly releasing her hands from his hair. He snuck a glance up at her to see her with her hands covering her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, stilling all of his movements.

"Don't stop! I'm _fine_. I'm going to come if you don't stop," she panted.

"Oh…" he said awkwardly before going back to it. A few minutes later, the little mewls she'd been letting out had turned into light moans, and he felt one of her hands instinctively grab the back of his head and pull his face tighter against her increasingly hot center. And then without any warning, she shouted out and he felt her muscles clamp down repeatedly on his fingers. Troy hesitantly took the advice of one of his friends, who he couldn't remember, and replaced his mouth with his thumb, slowly and very lightly circling her clit while her breathing returned to normal.

"Oh my god. That was amazing," she sighed, smiling down at him. Troy returned her grin before slowly removing his fingers from her body. "Now get up here." He stood gingerly, finally noticing how severely his erection was pressing against the zipper of his jeans. Once his body was comfortably on his side next to her, he propped up his head on his arm and looked down at her, placing his hand on her stomach and waiting for her to make eye contact with him. She finally did after a moment, sliding a hand across his cheek and drawing his face down to hers so she could kiss him again. Though she had seemed timid for a moment, her kisses now had an almost animalistic feel behind them, and it took only a few moments before she slung a leg over his body and straddled him, putting her body in direct contact with the very present bulge in his pants. Reluctantly, she pulled back and sat up straight, pulling her top over her head and fully exposing herself to him.

"You're beautiful," he said suddenly, meaning the words but not intending to actually say them out loud. She turned her attention to his abs, walking her fingers up them before looking up at him through her lashes.

"Do you mean that?" she asked softly, her gaze again focused on his stomach. He grabbed her hands and gripped them in his own, tightly lacing her fingers with his.

"I do," he said. She looked at him briefly before climbing off of him and taking a few steps away. He sat up and watched her with wide eyes, wondering how he could have possibly offended her by telling her she was beautiful. A light sigh of relief escaped his lips as he saw her open and search in her bedside drawer before returning to him with a condom.

"I think it's time we get those pants off," she smiled. He eagerly complied and in a matter of seconds, she was rolling the condom onto him. "Mind if we try something different this time?" He shook his head and smiled as she again grabbed his hands and moved atop him, positioning herself above him before slowly sinking down onto his achingly hard cock. A groan slid past his lips once he was fully inside and the heat from her body seemed to overtake him. Being much less intoxicated than he had been the last time, everything felt better, more vivid and intense.

He felt every movement she made. Each swivel of her hips and each contraction of her muscles sent waves of increasingly intense pleasure through him. Troy did his best to effectively match all of her movements with his own hips, but found himself getting overwhelmed by the feelings coursing through him. As her hands wrenched from his and gripped into his chest, her fingernails lightly digging down into his tanned skin, Troy let his hands shift to her constantly moving hips. He badly wanted to prolong it all, but when he felt her grip on him tighten and she let out a loud moan as she came again, he allowed the orgasm that he been brewing for the last several minutes come forth. His fingers gripped her hips hard as they both rode out their orgasms, and finally she stilled her movements and slowly lifted herself off of him.

Not knowing what else to do, he stood, tossed the condom into the garbage can beside her bed and then turned to find her pulling her robe over her body. So, Troy found his boxer briefs and jeans and pulled them on quickly. As he bent over to grab his shirt off the floor, she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the bed where she forced him to sit down.

"You're not going to get all weird on me, are you?" she asked.

"No, I just don't really know how this works," he admitted.

"Well, you can stay here if you want, but you really don't have to. I won't be offended."

"Good, because honestly, I don't think I could put up with your snoring for another whole night," he teased. Her mouth dropped open and she smacked his bare arm.

"Shut up, Troy! I do not snore!" she exclaimed before looking at him seriously, "Do I?"

"No, you don't snore," he said, "But I do think I'm going to head back. I'm going to get enough shit from Chad about leaving the party without saying anything, I should probably find out what they're doing, if that's okay." She rolled her eyes and pushed him until he stood.

"It's fine," she told him, "I'll see you around, okay?" He nodded, pulled his shirt over his head, and then gave her a final smile.

"Bye, Sharpay," he said before placing a kiss to her cheek and leaving. He felt like an idiot the entire way down the stairs, wishing that he would have done or said something else, something cooler or more appropriate than just goodbye. Forcing himself to push the thoughts out of his head, he grabbed his cell out of the back pocket of his jeans and sent a quick text to Chad asking if they were still at the party. About a block later, his phone started vibrating, letting him know that he had a response and he furrowed his brow at the message.

_Do not come back here. Just go home._

Ignoring Chad's warning and assuming that he was just pissed that Troy had taken off without any warning, he stayed on his path back toward the Beta house. He reached it a few minutes later to see that the party was still in full swing, so he headed inside and started to look for his friends. He found them still out on the back porch, obviously several beers drunker than they had been when he'd left them. Chad immediately shot him a look and stood to approach him.

"I told you not to come here," Chad stated, and Troy saw that the look he was giving wasn't reproachful, but actually worried.

"And I assumed you were just pissy that I took off," Troy shrugged, accepting the beer that Jason was suddenly shoving in his face.

"I don't care about, what I care about is-" Chad started before getting interrupted by Zeke.

"Dude, did you see your ex slutting it up in by the bar?" Zeke laughed. Troy gave him a questioning look, especially when Chad slapped Zeke's arm hard.

"What are you talking about?" Troy laughed nervously, looking back and forth between them.

"Gabriella's here. She showed up and has been flirting with guys for drinks and stuff," Chad shrugged, "Wasn't sure if you were ready to see that."

"Well, Troy was just off getting his dick sucked, so I don't think he'll care about watching Gabi flirt with some guys," Zeke laughed.

"I was _not_ getting my dick sucked, thank you very much," Troy rolled his eyes before taking a long sip of his beer, which he found to be very warm, "Dude, this beer is warm!"

"It's not my fault, I found it over there," Jason explained, pointing to an unoccupied bench. Troy closed his eyes and sighed before chucking the cup ungracefully into the yard.

"Can we please go get me a fresh beer?" Troy asked Chad, who nodded in agreement before they both headed for the house. After Troy had gotten a newly filled cup from the kitchen, he headed into the living room to check out the spectacle for himself. As he and Chad entered, Gabriella and a few other girls were bent over the bar with their hands clasped behind their backs, their lips wrapped around shot glasses. They stood up and tipped their heads back, letting the shots slide down their throats hands-free.

"Blow job shots," Chad explained before Troy even had the chance to ask. Troy scoffed loudly before turning to face Chad.

"She wouldn't fucking give me one in private, but she'll blow a glass of alcohol in the middle of a frat party?" Troy asked incredulously.

"Dude, I wouldn't even worry about it," Chad shrugged, "She's totally not who any of us thought she was." Troy sighed and sipped at his beer. "But seriously. It's time to fess up. What just happened with you and Sharpay?"

"You know…" Troy said, not wanting to say it out loud in front of so many people.

"And now you're back here partying it up?" Chad laughed, "Nice." He raised his hand, waiting expectantly for Troy to complete the high-five, which he did reluctantly. The sound of their hands smacking together caught Gabriella's attention and she came bounding over. The sight of her drunk, something she'd never wanted to do with Troy, and fellating an object, something she'd also never wanted to do with Troy, made his blood immediately boil.

"Hi Troy!" she said loudly, ignoring Chad completely.

"Hi Gabriella," Troy managed to say politely.

"Did you see what I just did?" she giggled, gesturing towards the bar.

"Yeah, it was fucking hilarious," he said blandly, and then came the words he was thinking, suddenly flying from his mouth, "Maybe if vodka came out of my dick you would have done that to me sometime." Chad's mouth dropped open and Gabriella just glared at him.

"I have my reasons for not doing that with you, Troy," she spat.

"Oh well then please enlighten me, Gabriella. Because I'm still pretty freaking confused as to why you wouldn't want to do that with your longtime boyfriend," Troy told her. She sighed childishly.

"I don't _feel_ like telling you right now," she whined and Troy found his patience with her waning fast.

"Then why don't you just go back to your friends before this gets any uglier," Chad offered. She nodded curtly before walking away, trying her hardest to look definitive and angry in her very drunk state. Once she was out of earshot, Chad couldn't help himself. "Dude, I can't believe you just said that to her! That was awesome!"

"It didn't feel awesome," Troy admitted, turning to head back towards the porch, "I'm so confused with her right now. I mean, who the hell is that person? That's certainly not the same Gabriella I dated."

"Or it _is_ the same Gabriella and she was just being super shady with you all this time." Troy didn't want to admit that, in fact, he wasn't fully capable of doing so. He had to find out what was going on with her, not because he wanted to get back together with her, but because despite everything that had happened and all the ugly secrets that had been unearthed, he still cared about her well-being. Whether he wanted to or not, he really did.


	12. The truth

Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed this story. I now have over 100 reviews and that's just phenomenal. You guys are amazing!

Secondly, I have to take a second here to promote my new story, a collaboration with fellow author, ALLYxoCORBIN. We're posting it under the name allyncate and it's called "On The Rebound." It's rated M, and you can find it in that section, so please go check it out:)

* * *

When Troy woke up the next morning, he knew what he needed to do, even though it was pretty much the last thing in the world he wanted to do: He needed to talk to Gabriella. After showering quickly and grabbing a breakfast sandwich from the Union, which he practically inhaled on his way to Gabriella and Taylor's dorm, he made the trek and was standing outside of their door feeling unprepared and incredibly uncomfortable. He knew that talking with her would resolve at least many of the questions he was having, if not all of the problems, but also knew that the conversation had the potential to turn ugly. They'd never really fought before in their relationship, but now that he was seeing such a new side of Gabriella, he no longer knew what to expect from her. After taking a deep breath, he raised his hand and knocked on their door. Taylor answered it and looked incredibly surprised to see Troy standing there. 

"Gee, look at the time," she said, grabbing her purse quickly before leaving. The door stood open and he saw Gabriella inside sitting on the futon with a half eaten bagel and bottle of Advil sitting next to her. He could only assume from the way she'd been drinking last night that she must have had one hell of a hangover.

"Troy," she said, sitting up straighter.

"We need to talk," he stated, getting right to the point. He sat down in her desk chair instead of sitting beside her, feeling the need to distance himself from her.

"About what?" she asked and he just gave her a pointed look in response. Her feigned naiveté was not impressing Troy and he was forced to take a moment to calm himself before continuing.

"About your recent behavior. You haven't been acting like yourself at all. People have been telling me that they've seen you out at a ton of parties," he said. He considered his next move for a second, hoping that it would come off as concern rather than just tattling. "Even Taylor's worried about you. She said you've been going out all the time and hooking up with random guys. What gives?"

"I'm _not_ your girlfriend anymore, Troy. I can do whatever I want with my spare time and it's none of your business," she said defensively.

"Of course you can, but people who care about you are worried about you because you're throwing away your morals and doing things that you would never even do with me when we were dating."

"Like what? Having sex, Troy?" she asked, sounding tired and frustrated.

"For starters, and going to parties and drinking," he said, "How many times did I ask you just to go _with_ me to a party? Not to drink, just to_ go_ with me and you wouldn't even do that. You always came up with some excuse and would never go. I _wanted_ to spend time with you on my own terms, too, Gabriella. All I was asking for was for you to come with and you refused. Now you're off doing fucking blowjob shots and going to every party on campus. What am I supposed to think about that?" She just sat there and looked at him, but instead of giving him a good answer, she just shrugged.

"I don't know, Troy."

"So you have no explanation for me. You just don't know," he said.

"Yeah, that's all," she lied. She knew she was lying, he knew she was lying, and they both knew that he wasn't going to be happy with that answer.

"Will you stop lying and just tell me the truth… _for once_," he spat.

She sighed loudly and dramatically before starting in. "Ever since we broke up, all I've wanted to do is be anything other than what I've been my entire life. It's like, I've finally stopped hiding from all the things I always wanted to do but never felt like I could."

"Why didn't you feel that you could explore those things with me? I don't understand," Troy said.

"Because you made me feel like I could never mess up, like I had to be this perfect person for you all the time and it was exhausting, Troy. I knew that if I went to a party I would have wanted to drink and then everything would have changed."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Troy said, absolutely flabbergasted, "How could you _possibly_ think that I wanted you to be perfect? Is that why you didn't tell me about Ryan?!"

"No Troy. I didn't tell you about Ryan because I didn't know _how_ to tell you about Ryan," she said.

"Um, how about just saying 'Troy, I messed up one night and we need to talk about it" instead of being fucking weird for the next _two years_!"

"Because I didn't want you to know, okay!"

"Why not? If you had just fessed up to it, then we could've gotten past it!"

"Troy, no we couldn't have! We'd only been dating for a few months. There's no way you can sit here and tell me that you would have gotten past it," she said. She was right and he knew it.

"Maybe you're right. But it broke us up anyway, so what's the difference?" he asked.

"The difference is that we got to spend two years together instead of a few months."

"Two years of a fucking sham relationship where you were never yourself and I was constantly beating myself up over why you wouldn't do _anything_ with me!" Troy shouted, "All I wanted was to be with you as much as possible and in as many ways as possible and you wouldn't give me any of it."

"Please stop this, Troy," she said.

"No! I want to know why you would never let me in, Gabriella!"

"Because I was unhappy, Troy!" she retorted and he felt like he'd gotten punched in the gut.

"Unhappy? With _what_? With us?" he asked. She chewed lightly on her bottom lip, refusing to make eye contact with him. "Well?"

"I was unhappy with you," she whispered, her voice hardly audible even in the silent room. He couldn't help himself as he stood and took a step towards her.

"And why weren't you happy with me?" he asked. She ignored his question and continued on as if she hadn't heard it.

"I've been sitting around the last few days trying to figure out why I let it go on for so long, and why I just kept you at arms length instead of saying something-"

"Gabriella, answer me," Troy interrupted, but she just kept going.

"And this has been really hard on me, Troy, because I wanted so badly for us to work out. I mean, you're everything I'd always thought I wanted, but once I got you, I just-"

Troy had had enough of her avoidance and finally raised his voice to the point that she was forced out of her rambling trance. "Damn it! Tell me why you were unhappy with me!!" he screamed.

"Because you're not good enough for me!" she shouted back, immediately clapping a hand over her mouth as the words she had obviously been trying desperately to avoid came spewing forth. Troy almost threw up on the spot and he knew that all of the blood had drained from his face, rendering him some sickly shade of green or gray.

"What?" he managed, wanting to sit back down, but not able to move a muscle.

"Shit, Troy, I'm sorry. I just… I mean, on the outside you seemed perfect for me. You're a nice guy and-"

"Don't give me that shit. Tell me the truth. After two years I deserve it," he demanded, still feeling like he was going to vomit at any second.

"You're just not smart enough for me, Troy," she finally admitted after a severely pregnant pause. At that point, his legs could no longer bear his weight and he sunk clumsily back down into his chair.

"Not smart enough? I have a fucking 3.5 here, Gabi! What the hell are you talking about?" She just sighed and rested her head in her hands, covering her face in the process.

"You know what I mean, Troy," she mumbled through her fingers.

"Obviously I don't," he said harshly, no longer caring at all if he was tactful in his dealings with her.

"I just need to be with an intellectual, and that's just never going to be you."

"Why the hell didn't this come up two years ago?" Troy asked, "I was fucking _in love_ with you, Gabi! You drug this relationship out when you _knew_ your heart wasn't in it. What kind of person does that?"

"A person who's terrified of hurting someone's feelings," she said.

"Oh yeah, because you haven't bruised my ego at all tonight," he snapped, "You are _so_ not who I thought you were. And for the record, it takes a lot more than a 4.0 and a huge vocabulary to be a good person. I think you've just proven that." Without another word, Troy stood from her chair and walked out of the room. He wanted to escape from the building as soon as possible, but found himself running full speed into the men's restroom in the lobby of their building where he emptied the entire contents of his stomach into the toilet, retching almost uncontrollably and crying besides by the time he was finished. After flushing, he sat down on the tile floor and waited for his hitching breaths to dissipate. He wanted out of that building and he never wanted to step foot inside of it again.

Gabriella's words were still spinning through his brain, especially "Not smart enough." Being the jock type, Troy had always had to battle with people who assumed he wasn't intelligent just because he happened to be good at getting a big orange ball consistently through a hoop. Now he couldn't help but wonder that if even his _girlfriend_ couldn't see past his athletic exterior, who would ever be able to? After he could breathe properly again and was mostly sure that his face wouldn't be showing any signs that he'd been crying, he left the bathroom and headed for his dorm, knowing that Taylor might still be there.

He walked into the room to find Taylor and Chad watching a movie on the futon.

"I figured Gabriella would have called you by now," he said bitterly, not even trying to hide the disdain in his voice.

"She did, but I stayed here anyway," Taylor said, reaching over to grab Chad's hand for support, "I don't even know who she is anymore. The Gabriella who has been my best friend for the last two years would have _never_ said to you what she told me she said. I'm so sorry, Troy."

"I really don't want to talk about it," Troy replied honestly, "But thanks." And then, he climbed into bed, fully clothed and only an hour after he'd woken up in the first place, and fell back asleep, knowing that being awake would be much worse than the potential for the bad dreams that he was sure would come. At least when he was asleep, a minute might go by without him having to feel heavy weight of anger and hurt that had taken up residence in his stomach.


	13. The surprise

Sorry for the ridiculously long wait. Stupid real life! I hope this chapter will be drama-filled enough to make up for it. I really do love me some drama... :) Thanks again to everyone who leaves me reviews. You are all AMAZING!

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Troy refused to let Gabriella's words sink him into a depression like they had when he'd first found out about her tryst with Ryan. So, he made himself do everything like normal even though his ego was severely bruised and he wanted to sleep, but knew that he couldn't let himself. He had to go on and try to forget how many times and in how many ways Gabriella had hurt him. He went to classes and did his homework with an even greater fury than he ever had before, finding himself determined to get As on all of his quizzes and assignments. Even though he honestly didn't care anymore what Gabriella thought of him or his achievements, he still felt like he had something to prove to himself. For so many years, he'd been trying to convince himself that he wasn't some typical jock, but if even Gabriella, his long-time girlfriend, thought of him as just that, then maybe he had been right to worry. Somehow, he felt that if he could do really well on everything this week, then he could reverse all of the awful feelings he was still trying to fight against.

He sat in the library staring at his government textbook wishing that it would read itself. As badly as he wanted to care about the inner and intricate workings of the American Government, he just couldn't bring himself to, especially with such a painfully boring teacher and book. Just as he was about start in on his chapter about all the duties of the President, he heard the chair across from his pull out, scraping loudly against the floor. He looked up to see Sharpay plopping herself down in it.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Um… reading," he said, assuming that the answer should have been rather obvious.

"You want to get out of here?"

"I have to get this done, Sharpay, I'm sorry," he said, and he did mean it. Hanging out with Sharpay sounded infinitely better than doing his reading, but his teacher had given a reading quiz every day of the term so far and Troy knew that he needed to do the reading or he'd fail it for sure. He'd slept through almost every day of his government class the previous year in high school, and therefore knew far less than he should have about the subject.

"You're no fun," she sighed, "I have to get out of here. I've been working on a paper all day and I'm about to go crazy. I mean, how much does any person really need to know about Sartre?"

"Apparently enough to write a paper about," Troy said, looking back down at his book.

"That's what my professor thinks, I guess. Well, if you want to come over later, just give me a call. I think I'm done working on my paper for the night, but I'd love to do something with you later," she said, and he didn't have to be looking at her expression to know what her tone of voice meant. He knew precisely what she wanted to do with him later, but there was no way he would agree to do that again. Sleeping with Sharpay had only served to further complicate his life and all he wanted to do was just be himself and be single. He knew that if he slept with Sharpay again, then that would be three times and it would also equal three times as much of a chance that something more complicated would arise. What if she changed her mind and wanted a relationship? What if he became a constant booty call? Neither thing he was something he was ready to handle. As her perfectly manicured nails drummed their way across the tabletop towards him, he sighed and looked up at her.

"Sharpay, seriously. I really need to get this done. If I get done early enough, I'll give you a call, okay?" he asked. She smiled triumphantly and slid her chair back so she could get up.

"Bye Troy," she smiled before turning and walking away. As he was about to get back to his reading, he heard the chair pull out again and was incredibly taken aback to see Gabriella sitting down across from him.

"Can we talk?" she asked him. He scoffed at her and turned his attention back to his book.

"Absolutely not," he spat, "I have nothing to say to you."

"Well I have some things to say to you, so just listen to me, okay?" she asked. Choosing to just ignore her rather than respond in any way, he continued to skim his reading while she sighed loudly and started to talk.

"I think you're such a hypocrite, Troy," she said, "You came to me telling me how worried you were that I was going out and having a good time and that everyone's so worried about me when you've been doing exactly the same thing."

"I know about you and Sharpay," she said, and he felt his stomach drop to somewhere near his feet.

"What?" he asked, his gaze finally raising to meet hers.

"I know about you and Sharpay," she repeated, speaking very slowly this time.

"How the hell do you know about that? Who could have possibly told you?" Troy asked.

"Tons of people know, Troy! Are you kidding me!"

"Well who's telling them? Was it Zeke? I'll fucking kill him!" Troy said, drawing in the stares of the people around them, but not really noticing.

"Nobody's telling anyone, Troy. People saw you two together," she said, suddenly looking very confused.

"They _saw_ us? What the fuck!" Troy said.

"Troy… I'm talking about the fact that you went to that date party with Sharpay the night that we broke up. What are _you_ talking about?" she asked. Troy felt all of the blood drain from his face as he gaped at her, the weight of his near confession settling down on him.

"That's what I was talking about," he said, trying to hide any signs of panic from Gabriella.

"_No_, it's obviously not."

"Would you just drop it, Gabriella?" he asked.

"No, I want to know what you're talking about. I was just referring to the fact that it was completely ridiculous of you to go out on a date the same night that we broke up."

"It wasn't a date."

"Then why did you freak out so much?" she asked sassily, crossing her arms over her chest before her mouth dropped open, "You _slept_ with her, didn't you!"

"Where did you get that from?" he asked with a sigh, wishing that she would just go away before he was forced to admit that to her.

"You _did_! What, did you think you were getting back at me for sleeping with Ryan? That's pathetic, Troy!"

"That's not why I did it!" he said sternly, immediately realizing that he had just admitted to her that he'd slept with Sharpay. But now that he had spilled the beans, he figured that he might as well go ahead and be completely forthright, "If you want me to be honest, then I'll tell you. We'd both had a lot to drink, I've always found Sharpay attractive, and after being with someone completely unwilling to touch me for the last two years, it was fucking fantastic to be with someone who couldn't wait to get her hands on me. And don't roll your eyes at me, because you _know_ I'm not being ridiculous with this."

"So I'm the ridiculous one?" she asked, "You fucked someone the day we broke up because it had been so awful not having any sexual intimacy for the last few years, and _I'm_ the ridiculous one?"

"No Gabriella, you're the ridiculous one because you wouldn't have sex with me, your _boyfriend_, but you spent the next several days after we broke up humping your way across campus. Waiting a day doesn't make you some kind of saint, you know."

She waited a beat before responding. "What do you want from me, Troy?"

"I just want to know why you wouldn't do anything sexual with me. Please, you owe me that much after all the other shit you've dumped on me." She looked at him sadly and he prepared himself for yet another vicious blow. After a few seconds, she mumbled a response that he couldn't understand. "Huh?"

"I _said_, it's because I just wasn't that into you. I wanted to break it off since the summer before senior year, but the longer I waited the harder it got to do. I guess I was just kind of hoping that you'd break up with _me_ and then I wouldn't have to do it," she admitted softly. Glaring at her, Troy threw his things into his backpack and stood up.

"You're pathetic," he told her, "And I can't believe I wasted two years being in love with you." He stormed out of the library and headed back to his dorm. He'd been hoping to get all of his homework done there so that Chad and Taylor could have some time together, but he texted Chad really quickly to see if it was okay if he came back. Once he'd gotten the go ahead, he made the climb up the stairs.

"No luck at the library?" Chad asked when he opened the door.

"Well, first, Sharpay asked me if I wanted to come over later, and then Gabriella comes over and starts ripping on me about going to that date party with Sharpay, but _I_ thought that she knew that I'd slept with Sharpay and it became this big mess. _Then_, Gabriella tells me that the reason she never wanted to do anything sexual with me was because she 'wasn't that into me' and was always hoping that I'd break up with _her_!" Troy said, the volume of his voice rising with every second.

"You slept with Sharpay?" Taylor asked with an eyebrow cocked so high Troy couldn't help but wonder if it'd hit her hairline soon.

"You didn't tell her that?" Troy asked Chad.

"Nope," Chad replied, prompting Taylor to lightly smack his arm, "What? Troy's my best friend and there are some things that I just can't tell you about. Can you tell me honestly that you've told me all of your friends secrets?"

"Well, no, but Troy having sex with Sharpay is kind of huge," Taylor told him.

"You guys are not helping at all," Troy said, sounding very defeated as he sat down in his desk chair, his backpack still securely on his back. "Not only did Gabriella never tell me that she slept with Ryan, she also told me that I was never _smart_ enough for her, and that she would never fool around or have sex with me because she didn't really like me and hoped that I would break up with her. I mean, how am I supposed to be handling all of this? I mean, _fuck_!"

"Troy…" Chad started, "I have no idea. This is insane."

"God, I'm getting a text," Taylor rolled her eyes, "And surprise, surprise. Guess who it's from."

"What does it say?" Troy asked. She pressed the button to open the message and sighed.

"_Just got in another fight with Troy. Came clean about everything. It's all definitely over now_," she read. Troy shrugged off his backpack and dropped it unceremoniously onto the floor.

"I think it was already definitely over, but whatever," Troy muttered.

"Okay, I have a suggestion," Taylor said, "Let's all go out to eat somewhere and just try to not think about this anymore at least for a little while."

"I could go for some good food," Chad said, giving Troy a hopeful smile. Even though Troy knew that it wouldn't help, he couldn't resist the looks on his friends' faces.

"So where are we going?" Taylor asked as she stood up to fetch her purse.

"I could go for something… spicy," Chad said.

"Buffalo Wild Wings?" Troy asked.

"Psh, you _know_ it!" Chad laughed. And with that, they all headed for the door. At the restaurant, they were all talking and laughing, and finally Taylor couldn't help herself any more.

"Okay Troy, you have to fess up! When did you sleep with Sharpay?" she asked.

"Um, the night of the date party… and during that party we went to the other night," Troy admitted sheepishly.

"_Twice_?!" Taylor laughed.

"Yeah, and now she just wants it all the time," Chad said, trying to get a rise out of Troy.

"Whatever, I can't help it that I'm good," Troy said with fake smugness causing Taylor to snort.

"Oh I'm sure that's it," she said. Troy scoffed and threw his straw wrapper at her.

"How can you be so sure it's not that?" he asked.

"Because, from what I hear, pretty boys are usually not nearly as good in bed as they think they are," she shrugged.

"Hey! I'm pretty!" Chad said. Taylor appeased him and lightly tapped his cheek with her hand.

"Sure you are, sweetie." Chad crossed his arms and frowned and Troy let himself lean back in his chair and just take in the moment. Taylor had been right, getting off campus had been exactly what he needed. He'd gone the entire meal without thinking about Gabriella once and would have continued to do so had the couple that walked through the door been any other two people.

"What the fuck?" Troy asked no one in particular as he gaped at the pair. Taylor and Chad whipped around to follow his line of sight and their expressions immediately mirrored his as they saw Zeke and Gabriella enter the restaurant, hand in hand.

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Dun dun dunnnnn. Hope you all don't kill me for leaving you with a cliffhanger like that. It definitely won't be so long before the next update, I promise.

And again, if you haven't checked out mine and Ally's new story "On The Rebound" go check it out! We just posted Chapter Three the other day. It's pretty different than a lot of other HSM fanfics, but the story's going to get crazy and really fun.

**Thanks again to all of you who read this story. It means the world to me! **


	14. The sleepover

Troy, Chad, and Taylor stared at Zeke and Gabriella as they found a table, all of them unable to look away.

"Are they on a date?" Taylor asked. As Troy was about to open his mouth to say that there was no way they could be, Zeke reached across the table to take Gabriella's hand in his.

"You two didn't know about this, did you?" Troy demanded.

"Absolutely not. I would have kicked his ass for you if I knew," Chad said.

"I can not believe Gabriella!" Taylor scowled, still not taking her eyes off her roommate. Troy couldn't take it anymore, so he broke his death glare from Zeke's face and turned his attention back to his hot wings. He found it increasingly difficult to choke down each bite while his stomach kept lurching. His brain wouldn't be quiet and a million possibilities were running full speed through his head. Was this thing with Zeke and Gabi new? Had she been cheating on Troy with him? Were they intentionally keeping it a secret from everyone? How the hell did Gabriella consider Zeke more of an intellectual than she had considered Troy?

Leaving half his basket full, he shoved it away and rested his elbows on the table, leaning his body in closer to Chad and Taylor. He knew that they hadn't seen them yet and that they could get a lot of the scoop if they played their cards right.

"Okay, Chad, we're going to sneak out and hope that they don't see us. Taylor, pretend that you're coming in to pick up dinner for you and Chad and go over when you're done ordering food and find out what the hell's going on. I'll pay for it, just buy a bunch of hot wings," Troy said in a hushed voice, sliding a twenty across the table to her. He hated being sneaky, but he had to know what was going on and he had to know what it was as soon as possible. Taylor nodded and Chad looked like he was about to complain about the loss of his french fries, but Troy just grabbed his arm and tried to lead them discreetly out of the restaurant.

They were almost out the door when Troy heard Zeke call out to him.

"Fuck," Chad muttered, stopping with his hand on the door handle as they both heard Zeke's footsteps rapidly approach. Troy shoved him hard from behind and with that they continued heading out the door.

"Troy! Don't walk away, come on," Zeke said and Troy shoved open the second set of doors, welcoming the comforting feel of the New Mexico heat hitting his face. Once they were safely outside and also out of the range of hearing for all the patrons of the restaurant, Troy turned to face Zeke.

"Well?" Troy asked, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Chad move beside him, his body position unintentionally matching Troy's.

"I don't know what to say, man," Zeke shrugged.

"Well I suggest you figure it out because I want to know why the fuck you're holding hands with my very recently ex-girlfriend," Troy spat, barely noticing that Gabriella and Taylor were now outside watching the exchange.

"It just happened," Zeke said.

"Oh, so it just happened just like you just happened to fuck Ryan?" Troy asked Gabriella who rolled her eyes in obvious annoyance and put her hands on her hips.

"This is nothing like that," Zeke answered for her, "That was a one-time thing and this-"

"This is what, Zeke? Not a one-time thing? How the hell long has this been going on?"

"We didn't start really seeing each other until after you two broke up, I swear."

"So what were you doing before then? If you weren't really seeing each other until after, then what the fuck were you doing before we broke up?" Troy asked, and the very pregnant pause told him everything he needed to know. "So you two were sleeping with each other before we broke up? Nice. Very fucking nice."

"Troy!" Gabriella called out to him as he stormed off for his car, "Taylor!"

"I'm not on your side with this, Gabriella," Taylor said before following. Chad and Taylor hardly had time to jump into the car before Troy peeled out of his parking spot and left Zeke and Gabriella standing there watching them drive away. Troy was aware of the fact that he was breathing heavily and that his fingers were gripping the steering wheel so hard this knuckles were turning white, and as he stopped at the first red light they came to, he pulled back his hand and punched the center of his steering wheel as hard as he could. A loud honk sounded, startling even himself.

"I'm so sorry, man," Chad said.

"I just don't know how much more of this shit I can take," Troy admitted, "I hope I never see her again because every time I do, I just find out more and more."

"I can't believe that Zeke would do that. I mean, after all we've learned lately, I can believe that Gabriella would do that, but Zeke?" Taylor said, speaking aloud more than expecting a response from either of them.

"I've given up trying to understand anything. Honestly," Troy sighed, swearing under his breath as his cell phone started vibrating in the cup holder next to him. He expected to see Zeke or Gabriella's pictures on the screen but instead saw Sharpay's name. Reluctantly, he answered.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Hey Troy! What are you doing tonight?" she asked.

"Drinking until I pass out, hopefully," Troy said, maneuvering his car into the McDonald's parking lot where he planned to buy all of them food to compensate for the dinner they'd walked out on.

"Well, come hang out with me and do that," she laughed, "You sound pissed, are you okay?"

"No, I'm really not," Troy admitted.

"Well, we're having a party tonight and you're coming," Sharpay informed him, "And I won't take no for an answer."

"Oh I'm sure you won't," Troy laughed, "What time do you want me there?"

"Nine, and don't be late," was all she said before hanging up. Troy sighed and tossed his phone onto the dashboard before asking Chad and Taylor what they wanted. Taylor returned his twenty to him and after they'd gotten their food they headed back for the dorms without saying much at all to each other. It was as if Taylor and Chad knew that anything they had to say, Troy was already thinking or didn't really need to hear at the moment. He led the way up to their room and plopped himself down on the floor to eat his Quarter Pounder.

"Was that Sharpay on the phone earlier?" Chad asked once they were all settled and finally finishing their dinner. Troy nodded and rubbed his hands over his eyes. He didn't exactly know why he'd agreed to go hang out with Sharpay again. It just felt like everything in his life was so confusing and just kept getting more so. And, Sharpay seemed to have a real knack for showing up right when he just wanted to be left alone or felt at his most vulnerable.

"What are you guys doing?" Taylor asked.

"Drinking, I guess," Troy shrugged, balling up the wrapper to his sandwich and tossing it in the wastebasket before digging into his fries.

"So, you'll be getting some booty, then?" Taylor asked. Troy wanted to respond, but thought better of it and just kept eating instead. He knew that what she had suggested was likely, but didn't want to go into the night expecting it. Sharpay had a tendency to make him forget about all the shitty things going on in his life, and that was what he was looking for above all else.

After hanging out with Chad and Taylor for a few hours, Troy got ready for the party and then headed out. He arrived a few minutes after nine and spent about five minutes looking for Sharpay. When he was about ready to give up, he spotted a flash of light blonde hair shaking in the middle of the sea of dancing bodies in the living room and he headed in there to meet her. She was dancing with some guy in the middle of the group, smiling radiantly and having a great time. Troy situated himself close by, watching her until she finally caught his gaze. Sharpay waved at him and kissed the guy on the cheek before making her way over to him.

"Hey! I was starting to think you stood me up," she smiled.

"Nope. I need a little break from my currently reality. Can you provide that, please?" he asked.

"I think we can come up with something," she said, "But first let's get you a drink." Troy didn't like to admit that he'd been drowning his sorrows in alcohol so much, but he had to as he couldn't wait for the cup full of something strong to be placed into his hand. They stood in the kitchen and chatted about nothing in particular for awhile before Sharpay grabbed his hand and pulled him out to the back porch. "Okay, spill."

"Sharpay, I really don't want to talk about it," Troy sighed, taking a lingering sip of his drink.

"Troy, just take five seconds to tell me. Get it out of your system and then we can just go have fun, okay?" she said. He gave in, too easily probably, but didn't have the patience or energy to argue with Sharpay.

"Zeke is dating Gabriella and they'd been sleeping together before she and I broke up," he said simply, "That's pretty much just the latest info. Can't wait to find out the next big shit bomb she's most likely going to drop on me."

"I have absolutely no idea what to say to that," she said, "Zeke and Gabriella?" He just nodded and finished off his drink. "You don't deserve all this crap, Troy. Seriously." He looked over to find her staring sincerely at him.

"Thanks," he sighed before tipping his glass in her direction, "I need a refill." She nodded and allowed him to change the subject. As they were in the kitchen getting Troy another drink, a brunette in a very tight blue jersey dress approached them. Sharpay sighed while facing Troy but then plastered on a big fake smile as she turned to face the girl.

"Sharpay, this guy's been around several times and you've never introduced us. Who is he?" she asked, never taking her eyes off of Troy's face. He had to fight hard against the desire to roll his eyes at her blatant attempt at flirtation. Sure she was hot, and sure if he was in a better mood he might have been interested, but he wasn't.

"This is Troy Bolton. We've known each other for forever. Old friends, right Troy?" she asked, elbowing him lightly as she tried to get him to help her out with the girl she obviously wasn't very fond of.

"Very old friends," he smiled at the girl.

"Well, I don't think that friends usually spend the night, do they?" she asked, hopefully, obviously wanting Sharpay to say that there was nothing going on between them so she could have a shot with him. Sharpay just blinked at her a few times, her smile never wavering.

"Bye Ashley," she said dismissively through her big fake grin. Ashley returned the feigned nicety before turning and walking away. Sharpay took a deep breath before turning back to face Troy. "I just love all of my sorority sisters."

"She seems… nice," Troy lied.

"Oh she's a pushy, trampy bitch," Sharpay said, prompting Troy to laugh loudly, "Don't you like your drink?"

"I don't think I'm in the mood to drink as much as I thought I was," he admitted, looking into the depths of his glass.

"You want to go upstairs?" she asked. Right then, he realized that he really wasn't in the mood for that either. He just wanted to hang out, and not in the middle of a crazy party. Seeming to read his mind, Sharpay continued. "Just to hang out. We can watch a movie or something."

"That sounds perfect, actually," he said. She grabbed his cup from his hand and threw it into the garbage with her own. He followed her upstairs and once they were behind the safety of her closed door, he toed off his shoes and collapsed dramatically onto her bed. She put in "American Pie" and then laid down beside him, keeping some distance between them. They laughed together and just enjoyed each other's company, talking at times, but mostly just watching the movie. Close to the end, Troy found himself getting sleepy.

"You can stay here if you want. Just to sleep," she said softly. Troy agreed and they both climbed under the covers to finish the movie. "Goodnight, Troy."

"Goodnight, Sharpay."


	15. The confrontation

Yay!! I finally got the chance to finish this chapter. I'm insanely busy with work and I apologize for the ridiculously long delay. This chapter has a lot of important info in it and the next chapter will contain the things I'm sure most of you are waiting for ;) Let me know what you think! It's good to be back!

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"How long are you planning on making me wait around for you to wake up?" Sharpay asked as she intentionally sat down hard on the edge of her bed, bumping Troy from his peaceful slumber. He jolted awake and sat up quickly, scared half shitless by the sound of her voice. In the second before he'd opened his eyes, he had thought that he was in his own bed at home, but when he heard the tail end of her sentence, he realized that he was still in her room. As soon as he had taken a deep breath, he looked at Sharpay and realized that she had already showered and gotten ready while he'd been laying there sleeping.

"Sorry, what?" he asked. She smiled and stood.

"I just asked how long you were planning on making me stay in here while you slept."

"I'm really sorry," he said, "What time is it?"

"Noon, lazy ass," Sharpay rolled her eyes, grabbing her purse off her dresser and nodding her head towards the door, "And I have errands to run, so let's go, Bolton." He immediately climbed out of bed and straightened his clothes before following her. "I'll give you a ride back to your dorm."

"Thanks Sharpay, for the ride _and_ for letting me crash at your place," Troy told her sincerely. She nodded.

"Yeah yeah. You owe me," she said simply.

"And why is that?"

"Because you hog the bed _and_ I had to be bored all morning while you slept," she sassed, unlocking her car with the remote and getting in the driver's seat while Troy followed suit in the passenger's seat. Troy sighed and buckled his seat belt. He knew that she was just giving him a hard time, but his guilty conscience couldn't help but take over.

"I already apologized, what else do you want me to say?" Troy asked. She just shrugged and changed the radio station. After a few minutes of driving, she pulled up in front of his building and put the car in park.

"I'll see you soon," she said, looking ahead, only venturing to peek at him through her peripheral vision.

"Bye Sharpay," Troy said, getting out of the car slowly, the whole time wondering if she was really mad at him or not.

"You're such a loser," she laughed loudly, "Have a good day, Troy!" And with that, she reached over and pulled the door shut before driving away. He chuckled lightly to himself before heading for the building. When he reached his room, he found the little green rubber band placed on the doorknob and he had to restrain himself from kicking the door hard.

"Hey Troy!" Jason said, sticking his out of his door, "What's up?"

"I do _not_ want to talk to you right now," Troy said, unable to disassociate Jason from Zeke.

"Look, I didn't know about Zeke and Gabriella until yesterday either, so don't get mad at me," Jason stated, looking sternly at Troy before shutting the door hard. Troy sighed and went to walk down the hallway to the bathroom where he could at least be semi-productive and take a shower while he waited for Chad and Taylor to get done humping each other. As he passed Zeke's door, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the dry erase board that seemed to be staring tauntingly at him. Quickly, he moved over to the door, grabbed the marker, and wrote "Fucking Asshole" on the board before dropping the pen onto the floor without even putting the cap back on.

Being in the shower felt good, like it was cleansing all of the tension out of his body. He hadn't thought about Zeke and Gabriella all morning until he'd seen Jason, and he hated that he'd taken out his anger out on someone who wasn't involved. But, if he was to defend himself, he really hadn't known that Jason hadn't been in on the deal in some way. He knew there was no way he could keep something like that from Chad, so he had only assumed.

After he'd showered, he made an attempt to go back to his room. Thankfully, the rubber band had disappeared and he knocked once before letting himself in, finding Chad and Taylor lounging on the futon.

"Will you two open a window or something when you're done? It smells like sex in here," Troy grumbled, spraying his cologne into the middle of the room before applying it to his own body. Chad just rolled his eyes.

"Have fun with Sharpay?" he asked instead of making a response to Troy's comment.

"Yes, and nothing sexual happened, so just don't even start," Troy said dismissively, fully aware of the look in Taylor's eyes that told him she was itching to make a smartass comment. She glared at him before sinking back into Chad's side.

"Then what _did_ you guys do?" Chad asked.

"Drank a little, talked, watched a movie, and then slept. It was nice," Troy shrugged.

"Sounds like she's your girlfriend," Taylor responded, eliciting a very dirty look from Troy.

"Look, I said it before and I still mean it. I want to be single right now. I've been in a relationship for the past two years, however pathetic it might have been, and now I just want to have some damned fun. I have fun with Sharpay, and hanging out with her doesn't make her my girlfriend. You _can_ have friends of the opposite sex, you know."

"No you can't, actually. Not real friends. Not according to 'When Harry Met Sally,'" Taylor informed him. Troy sighed loudly and sat down at his desk after pulling a clean shirt over his head.

"I must have forgotten to read the Gospel According to Meg Ryan," Troy said before opening Firefox and checking his email. He was very surprised to see an e-mail from Zeke in his Inbox, and while he was fully tempted to delete it without reading, over ten years of friendship and memories made him check it out. Zeke wanted to meet at the basketball courts close to their dorms at 6pm according to the e-mail. As much as Troy didn't want to so much as look at the backstabbing bastard ever again, he knew that for the sake of his group of friends and his own sanity having to deal with Zeke for the next several years that he needed to go. "Shit…"

"What?" Chad asked absently, not taking his eyes off the TV.

"Zeke e-mailed me… wants me to meet him at six," Troy explained, rubbing his hands over his eyes.

"Well, are you going?" Chad asked expectantly after Troy hesitated for a moment, as if Troy should have given him that piece of information immediately.

"Yeah, I kind of feel like I have to," Troy sighed.

"Well, if you're going to punch him, make it a good bruise that'll last for a long time," Chad offered, causing Troy to smile slightly. More than anything, he wanted to slug Zeke, his supposed good friend who had been fucking his girlfriend for the last god knows how long. The thought of Zeke and Gabriella secretly meeting up to have sex made his stomach churn, but more than anything, he wanted some answered.

Impatiently, he waited for the hours to tick by, shooting the breeze with Taylor and Chad until the clock on his computer finally told him that it was five minutes until six.

"I guess I should go," he sighed, standing and pushing his desk chair under his desk.

"Good luck and don't forgive him, Troy. You know how you get when you just want something to be over with. Don't give in," Chad said. Troy nodded and walked out the door, knowing that Chad was referring to the fact that he usually gave in and let things go because he hated fighting so badly. But this was different and he wasn't sure that he could ever forgive Zeke and Gabriella for what they had done. All he wanted was to calm the waters enough that he didn't want to beat Zeke in the face with a blunt object every time he saw him.

It didn't take long for Troy to reach the courts and he saw Zeke standing there looking uncomfortable.

"Hey," Troy said, immediately crossing his arms over his chest and throwing his shoulders back, trying to make himself look bigger and more menacing than he really was.

"Hi. Wow, I didn't think you'd come," Zeke admitted, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Well, I probably shouldn't have, but here I am," Troy stated, trying to keep it to the point, "So, why did you ask me to meet you?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen… I never expected that I would fall for Gabriella." Troy rolled his eyes.

"You're going to have to do better than that," he said.

"Well it's true. It started at the end of last year, not the sex, but my feelings for her. I started this, not her, so don't blame her for it."

"Yeah, that's fine. I have plenty else to blame her for. Like the fact that she fucked Ryan or I've been waiting to lose my virginity to her while she's been off humping you regularly and couldn't muster up the courage to tell me she wanted to end it. She made those decisions, Zeke, not you."

"I know all of that, Troy. And I'm not saying that we should be forgiven for it, but we _are_ in love and we _are_ going to keep dating." Troy had to scoff at Zeke's use of the word love.

"Yeah, I thought she and I were in love, too. She's pretty damned good at faking, so just be careful, not that I care if she shits all over you," Troy said, deciding that he was done with the conversation. Without a goodbye, Troy turned and stalked off, thoroughly pissed off once again. He got in his car, not yet wanting to talk about the conversation with Chad and Taylor, and drove to his favorite Chinese restaurant to get a double order of crab rangoon so he could gorge himself and mope for the rest of the night.

He was done ordering and was sitting in an uncomfortable chair next to a stack of booster seats when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He assumed that it was Chad asking if he wanted back-up, but wasn't all that surprised to see Sharpay's name on his phone.

"Hi Sharpay," he answered. It took her a moment to respond and he felt himself instinctively sit up straighter. Something was wrong.

"Can you come over?" she asked softly.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it over the phone," she said.

"I'll be there in five minutes," he told her, grabbing his order from the counter and practically sprinting from the restaurant. He pocketed his cell and climbed in his car, heading for the Tri-Delta house. Once he'd gotten the girl at the front desk to let him inside, he went to Sharpay's room and knocked lightly on the door. She answered the door, no eye makeup on and her eyes slightly red.

"Thanks for coming," she said, opening the door wider so he could enter. He set his food on her desk, having brought it in just in case he would have the opportunity to eat them before they got cold. And also in case she might want one.

"What's wrong?" he asked her again, following her as she walked to her bed.

"I saw Gabriella at the library and she started bitching me out for sleeping with you, asking me how could I do that the same night you and her broke up. And then I shot back asking her how she could be having a freaking affair with Zeke while she was dating you. It wasn't pretty," she paused, "And then she started going on and on about how manipulative I am and how I'm using your fragile state to take advantage of you. And at the time it didn't bother me because I really just wanted to deck her, but the whole time I was walking back here all I could do was think about if you were thinking that way about it. Because I swear to you that it's not my intention. Yes, I've always found you attractive, but I've just been enjoying the fact that you're not dating the jealousy-queen and I can finally spend some time with you, that's all." Troy was used to Sharpay's rambling and usually tuned it out when she went into a speech about something, but he actually listened to her. He could tell just by looking at her how sincere she was being and the idea of her taking advantage of him had never crossed his mind.

"Sharpay, I believe you and I never thought that, I swear," he said, "And for the record, I'm glad I've gotten to spend time with you, too."

"Yeah?" she asked, wiping the wetness from under her eyes. He nodded and pulled her in for a tight hug. His hands swept over her back, his fingertips grazing over the exposed skin her tank top was offering to him.

"Troy?" she asked. He pulled back and looked at her questioningly, "Kiss me." He leaned in and pressed his lips lightly to hers, fisting a hand in her long blonde hair as she moved her mouth to capture his bottom lip between hers. Before he could even process what was happening, he found himself on top of her, cradled between her thighs as he continued to kiss her. Once the situation sank in, he pushed himself off her to sit on his heels.

"What's wrong?" she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

"Well, after that conversation we just had, I think this is really inappropriate," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"If we did anything now, I'd definitely be taking advantage of you in a delicate state," he said and she laughed lightly at him.

"Not if I want you to take advantage of me," she smiled, grabbing the front of his shirt and attempting to pull him back onto her. He put his hand over hers and stilled her movements.

"It's not that I don't want to, trust me. But you were just crying… let's just wait until later, okay?"

"You're sweet," she said sincerely, sitting up so she could kiss his cheek. They sat there in silence for a few seconds, neither of them sure what to do next, before she broke the silence. "So, whatcha got in that bag over there?"

"Crab rangoon, you want some?" he grinned.

"Psh, you know it," she laughed, scooting back until her back hit the headboard. Troy got up to grab the bag and plopped back down next to her. He felt his cell phone vibrate and when he pulled it out he saw a picture of Chad giving him the finger blinking at him. He just shoved it back into his pocket and turned his attention back to Sharpay.


	16. The 'Bro Code'

Don't die of shock, I'm actually updating!! I'm so sorry this chapter took SO LONG to get up here, but I'm hoping that it will be worth the wait! Thanks so much to those of you wonderful people who reviewed the last chapter. You guys are amazing and I hope you like this chapter! I promise it will not be so long until the next!

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Troy hurried to finish his homework, speed reading like he'd never done before. He had five hours worth of homework to finish in about an hour and a half, something he had been dreading all day, but also something that he wanted to do desperately. Chad and Taylor had taken their weekend away and since things had been so weird lately, when they got back Chad had announced that they really needed a guys' night out. He and Taylor had apparently discussed it and thought that Chad and Troy should just hang out and spend some time together, something they hadn't gotten the chance to do much lately. They were going to play a pickup game with some guys from the basketball team. Then, they'd planned to go eat at Buffalo Wild Wings where they could also watch whatever game happened to be showing on ESPN, and then they were going to just play it by ear and see what was going on around campus. Troy had to admit to himself that it didn't really matter what they did, as long as it kept his mind off of everything that had been going to shit in his life lately.

After his conversation with Sharpay the previous week about Gabriella approaching her, Troy had been feeling even more animosity towards Gabriella than he had before. He couldn't believe that she'd had the audacity to say something to Sharpay. What did it matter to her anyway? She was the one who had cheated on him multiple times and said a plethora of horrible things to him. So what in the hell did she care about any of it?

He sighed and gave up on his government reading. It was over how a bill became a law and he was pretty sure that he remembered enough from the old School House Rock video to get him by on the reading exam. All he had left to do was journal about the reading he'd done during lunch and he was good to go. He wrote about the topic at hand, who the hero of "Frankenstein" was, quickly but carefully. He had to admit that he was actually enjoying this book, much more than "Portrait Of An Artist." Once that was finished, he threw all of his things into his bag and headed out of the library and towards his dorm.

Zeke just happened to be heading into his room as Troy passed, and Troy decided to just ignore him. He knew that with time, they might be able to mend their relationship, but the last thing he wanted to do was put a damper on the night before it even began. Zeke didn't seem to mind and went into his room without a fuss. Troy barged into his room to find Chad lounging on his bed watching TV. He sat up when Troy came in the room and smiled.

"You ready for our big night?" Chad asked, grabbing the basketball from his dresser and tossing it at Troy. Troy caught it effortlessly and threw it back.

"Totally," Troy sighed, "I worked like hell to get my homework done, but I did. Or at least I did it well enough to get me through tomorrow."

"You've sure been all about the homework lately. Got something to prove?" Chad asked, a knowing tinge to his voice.

"Yeah, you could say that," Troy said, He quickly changed into a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt and they headed out to the nearest courts to meet the guys. They played for about an hour, or rather, until Chad and Troy were too ravenous to continue, and then they headed back to take quick showers before heading for the restaurant.

"How many wings should we get?" Chad asked, looking at the menu intently.

"How many can we order without looking like total pigs?" Troy laughing.

"Fifty?" Chad shrugged.

"Only if we get potato wedges with cheese, too," Troy stated. Once they were agreed, they headed up to the counter and ordered. They got settled in at the table with their food, gorging themselves on their hot wings drowned in ranch dressing and washed down with Cokes.

"So, how are you doing?" Chad finally asked once a lull in their typical sports-related banter waned.

Troy sighed before speaking. "I guess I'm okay. I just feel like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone or something. I mean, Gabriella and I are over. She's dating _Zeke_ of all people, and I've been spending time with Sharpay. How did all this happen?"

"Gabi turned out to be an evil she-wench?" Chad suggested, "Honestly though, it's really messed up. And I feel like the world's worst best friend because I haven't even known what to _say_ to you it's so messed up."

I just keep thinking I'm going to wake up and it's all going to be a dream, as stupid as that sounds…" Chad reached across the table and pinched Troy's forearm hard. "What the hell?!"

"No such luck, I don't think you're dreaming," Chad shrugged, ignoring Troy's outburst and looking incredibly proud of himself. Troy just frowned at him and rubbed at the now incredibly red spot on his arm. Once they were finished with their feast, they decided to stop by the weekly Thursday night party at the Beta house. Keeping with the theme of their guys' night, they distanced themselves from the increasing number of girls lingering near the kegs and headed out to the back porch to sit and talk once they both had a beer in hand.

"Thanks for tonight," Troy said, "I mean, it was really nice of you to squeeze me in on a Thursday night." He tried to keep a straight face, but his smile betrayed him. He had never been good at lying.

"Oh shut up. Taylor has me booked all weekend, there was nothing I could do."

"How about say no to something she suggests?"

"Have you met Taylor? Do you _really_ think that's a good idea?" Chad laughed.

"Taylor seems like a pretty cool girlfriend, I doubt she'd kill you if you wanted to do something without her one weekend night."

"I'm sure you're right, but I also don't want to test the waters to find out. And besides, tomorrow night she has some banquet for freshman honor's society she got into and Saturday night is a wedding, so it's not like she's forcing me to go sit in her dorm room or something."

"I was just fucking with you," Troy laughed, patting Chad on the back before taking a sip of his beer. They sat there, taking in the craziness happening around them for a few moments. Troy was happy to be at the party, but was not happy for the silence that had just started. When his brain wasn't being constantly stimulated, he started thinking, and then he wanted to relapse back into his emo behavior. That or drink until Chad had to carry him home, and neither seemed like a wise option.

"Look out, it's your non-girlfriend," Chad said, shaking his head. Troy turned towards the back door and expected to see Gabriella standing there hand-in-hand with Zeke, but saw Sharpay instead. He let the breath he hadn't realized he was holding rush out in relief. Seeing Sharpay wasn't a big deal, but seeing Gabriella would have been, or at least that had been the pattern of late.

"I should have known I'd find you here," she smiled as she walked towards them, typical fruity drink in hand.

"Is that right?" Troy asked.

"Of course," she said, finally coming to a stop in front of them, "Just the two of you tonight?"

"Guys' Night Out," Chad exclaimed before making shooing motions with his hands, "So, bye!"

"I won't interrupt your little ambiguously gay evening. I just wanted to say hi," she laughed, "So hi and bye." And with that she walked back into the house.

"Was that necessary?" Troy asked him, suddenly finding himself incredibly annoyed.

"Come on, Troy. If I hadn't gotten rid of her, she would have hung around and drooled all over you until you gave in and went home with her."

"I have self-control, thank you very much," Troy spat before standing, "I need another beer."

"Grab me one while you're in there," Chad said, obviously oblivious to Troy's sudden change in mood. Troy went into the house and did get another beer, but only for himself. After he'd done that, he struck out in search of Sharpay. He found her in the living room talking to a few girls he recognized from her sorority's parties.

"I knew you'd come find me," she grinned, turning her attention away from the girls and towards Troy.

"I just wanted to apologize for Chad. He shouldn't have talked to you like that." She shrugged and took a sip of her drink.

"No harm, no foul. I wouldn't want to get in the way of boy bonding."

"He's just trying to get my mind off of everything," Troy explained, "With everything being so crazy lately, we haven't gotten much of a chance to hang out."

"That's fine, I won't interrupt your night… unless you want me to, that is," she said slyly.

"What do you mean?"

"You could pretend to not be feeling well and tell him to spend the night at Taylor's. Then you could come see me instead," she said, "But I wouldn't want to impose." Troy knew that she had added that last sentence a little too quickly to be sincere about it, but her suggestion was mighty tempting.

"I'll meet you at your place in twenty minutes," Troy said, walking away before she had the chance to protest. He didn't bother getting another glass since he hadn't touched his and he went back outside to find Chad talking on his cell. Focusing very hard, Troy prepared himself to lie. He justified it to himself because they probably only would have had one more beer before heading back to the dorms anyway. This way, Chad would get laid, something he knew he had been planning to forfeit in order to spend time with Troy.

"I'm not feeling so good," Troy said, pushing the cup into Chad's hand once he'd hung up his phone.

"Too many wings?" Chad laughed.

"Too much something," Troy replied, rubbing his stomach lightly for good measure, "I think I'm going to head back. I really don't want to puke here at the party."

"Do you want me to come back with you?" Chad asked. It was obvious that he was trying to sound concerned, but Troy could see him playing with his cell phone, indicating to Troy that he really wanted to go over to Taylor's.

"You might not want to," Troy said, "I mean, if I'm getting the flu or something, it might be better if you're not around."

"I'll see if I can stay at Taylor's," Chad said a little too eagerly, opening his phone again to make the call.

"I'm going to head out. I'll see you tomorrow," Troy said, standing gingerly and walking around the house slowly. He continued to walk slowly until he was far enough away that he could pick up the pace, and he did so by running the rest of the way to the Tri Delta house.

After he'd gotten let into the house, he ran up the stairs to Sharpay's room and let himself in, stopping short once he got over the threshold.

"Think you might want to close the door?" she asked from her position on the bed where she was lying sexily in a bright pink lacy corset and matching panties. He nodded dumbly before kicking the door shut with his heel, not wanting to take his eyes off the view for a second.

"You look amazing," he managed, walking towards her.

"_You_ look amazing. And you'll look more amazing once you have those clothes off," she told him and he immediately pulled his shirt off and tried to toe off his shoes while walking, which resulted in him tripping and falling face first, shirt up around his head, onto the bed. He wanted to die on the spot, it was the only way he could imagine dealing with the embarrassment, but when he heard Sharpay laughing hysterically and felt her trying to pull the shirt from his arms, he felt the anxiety melt away. "You're such a mess!"

"I can't help that I'm just too smooth for you," he laughed, sitting up beside her in the middle of the bed once his shirt and shoes were safely on the floor.

"Yeah, too smooth. That _must_ be it," she said, giving his shoulder a shove, "You totally ruined the sexy atmosphere I had all set up." He looked around and saw that she had lit several candles and had some soft music playing and everything, he was prepared to feel bad, but then saw that she was still smiling and knew that she was just messing with him.

"This feels pretty sexy to me," he said, attempting to make up for it by leaning over and kissing her softly on the corner of her mouth.

"Hmm… I think you're right," she said, reaching up to touch his cheek and pull him closer to her so she could kiss him again, this time a little more forcefully. His tongue snuck out to meet hers and she moaned and pressed her lace covered chest closer against his. Troy pulled her onto his lap, unable to stop the groan from escaping his lips as her barely covered center pressed into the growing erection in his jeans. She raised herself up on her knees so she could unzip his jeans and help him push them to the ground. Troy almost found himself laughing as thought about how mere minutes before he hand face-planted onto the bed, but when Sharpay resumed her previous position, any thoughts of laughter fled his mind. Her hips moved slightly, just enough to maintain a slight, but mind-blowing friction against the erection that was now poking out through the hole in this boxers.

"Condom?" she mewled against his lips in between increasingly intense kisses. He almost asked her if she was sure she was ready already, but she spoke again before he could, "I need you now, Troy. Do you have a condom?" Unable to speak, he simply nodded towards his pants and she turned around to snatch them from the floor, giving him a good long look at the lacy boyshorts covering her ass. She found the condom tucked away inside his wallet and had it rolled onto him before he could even process what was happening. They hadn't had sex yet without significant amounts of foreplay, and the urgency in her actions was definitely turning him on more than he had been in a really long time. He watched in amazement as she quickly shimmied out of her underwear and repositioned herself, sinking down slowly on his painfully hard cock. They were in a strange position, Troy was now leaning back on his hands while Sharpay rode him into oblivion, her hands death-gripped on his shoulders. He could feel her muscles gripping him tightly with each thrust, and that coupled with the speed she was moving was more than he could handle. Though he tried to stave it off for as long as possible, Troy came far sooner than he would have liked, stars exploding behind his eyelids as Sharpay slowed her pace. It was then that he noticed she was slightly trembling and he realized that he had completely missed her orgasm.

"Wow…" she gasped, collapsing forward onto his slightly sweaty chest, causing his arms to give out and both of them to go toppling to the mattress.

"Now who's the smooth one?" Troy teased, poking her in the side while they both lay there recovering. She lightly smacked his chest, obviously too spent to do much else.

"Shut up," she mumbled against his skin. They lay there for several minutes before Sharpay pushed herself into a sitting position and she reclaimed her panties from the mess of clothes on the floor. "Are you heading back to your dorm?"

"I don't think I can walk," Troy laughed, not moving a muscle.

"Good, me either," she grinned, laying back down beside him and pulling a blanket from the foot of her bed on top of them.

Troy awoke the next morning and took a quick shower in Sharpay's bathroom before heading back across campus. It was early, so he knew that he had plenty of time to stage his sick bed before Chad drug himself in to get ready before his first class.

"Wow, you must have had that new nine hour flu that's going around," Chad said accusatorily when Troy walked into their room, thoroughly scaring the shit out of Troy. He jumped at the sound of Chad's voice, as he had been expecting to come back to an empty room. Chad never woke up before nine, even on school days.

"Chad… I don't know what to say," Troy said, and it was the truth. The look on Chad's face was one of pure anger, one he hadn't seen in a long time.

"What about 'I'm a big tool who broke the Bro Code!'" Chad said, the volume of his voice rising with each word.

"The Bro Code?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, it's pretty simple to follow. You know what it basically says?" Chad asked, not waiting for a reply before continuing, "You never ditch out on a friend for a girl! _Especially_ when that girl is not your girlfriend! And I think you need to really think about what you're doing with Sharpay. Something's not right with this!"

"How do you figure?"

"She's making you act like a different person!"

"Maybe I want to feel like a different person! Christ, Chad! Do you have any idea the massive hits my self-esteem has taken in these last few weeks? God forbid I want to spend time with someone who doesn't make me feel like total crap! _And_ who I have a good time with. And if you don't want me to have a good time or feel good, then you're not really my best friend!"

"Of course I'm your best friend, Troy," Chad said, calming down and sounding like he was now trying to calm Troy down as well.

"Then act like it," Troy said.

"_I'm_ not the one being the bad friend. At least _I_ didn't break the Bro Code!"

"Will you give it a rest with that?" Troy asked.

"Bros before hos!" Chad exclaimed, verbally grasping for straws.

"I'm leaving," Troy said, throwing up his hands, "Oh, and don't call Sharpay a ho!" With that, he slammed the door and stormed off down the hallway.


	17. The rebound girl

Hello readers! This story has been plaguing me of late because I'm struggling with how and when to end the story, which affects how I have to write each chapter. There could be anywhere from one to many more chapters. I honestly don't know yet how many there will be. Please just trust that whatever decision I make will be in the best interest of the plot. I don't want to drag it out longer than makes good sense, but I also don't want to cut it short.

I've been getting some questions lately regarding **Hungry Eyes** and I just want to let you all know that this story is on hiatus until I finish **Seductress**. I already have too many irons in the fire as I also write things outside of HSM fanfic and I want to do the story justice. I'm very excited to work on it, just not quite yet.

I updated my outside HSM fanfic site, Lost In You, with a new layout that I'm incredibly proud of. If you're interested, go check that out. The link is in my profile.

Thank you so much to allyxocorbin, OoIce QueenoO, marebear11, Evane21, xo LAILAIxo, plasticlittlespastic, mrshottieochoa, Clotisy, crissyyflipp58, lib lob, I'll Be There For You, xzashleyxashleyx, boomboxer, ascii27, hayleyajones, CurlySweet, and Tarafina for commenting on the last chapter. You guys are AMAZING!! More soon, I promise!

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Troy and Chad had never gone longer than a day without speaking in the entire span of their friendship, but three days had passed since Troy had apparently broken the 'Bro Code,' as Chad had put it. Troy wasn't angry any more, but was so annoyed by Chad's huffing and stomping around that he instead chose to just ignore him. He had too much else on his plate to deal with his immaturity. Finals were rapidly approaching, something Troy was not looking forward to in the slightest. It was time for him to prove to himself and everyone else how hard he worked and what he could achieve when he really tried. At first, he had wanted to send a framed copy of a straight A report card to Gabriella, but he found himself caring less about their break-up every day, which he supposed was healthy. So instead of spending time in the dorms and being forced to encounter Chad _and_ Zeke, he found himself sticking mainly to the library and Sharpay's room. Actually, he found that he got more work done with Sharpay than without, because she was actually really good at getting her homework done in a timely manner. They were always finished by six o'clock which left plenty of time for late night runs and more time to watch TV than he'd had all year.

"You want some of my fries?" Sharpay asked idly, angling her Hardee's bag in his direction without taking her eyes off the TV. Troy politely declined and laughed lightly to himself. He never would have imagined that Sharpay would eat something like a Thickburger and fries for dinner, but had found out in the last week that she did. He didn't dare rib her about it for fear that he would offend her in some way, but he had to say that he was as shocked as he was impressed. Gabriella had always eaten salads or chicken breasts for dinner. He wouldn't have cared if she really dug into a steak or something, but she never did. The boxes of cookies and candy wrappers he frequently saw in her garbage can were proof that she did gorge herself on occasion, but she had never once done it in front of him in two years together.

"What the hell are we watching, Sharpay? I can't take it any more," Troy complained.

"It's _Shear Genius_ and it's awesome, so just shut up and watch." Troy snatched the remote from her french fry free hand and changed the station to ESPN. "Troy!"

"I have been watching your shit for the last four days, I just want to watch for ten minutes to see what the scores of tonight's games were so calm down," he laughed, loving the look of outrage on her face.

"If I miss the elimination because of this…" she warned, her eyes narrowing into slits as she glared at him. Troy just chuckled to himself and held the remote hostage until he'd seen everything he wanted to see and then he handed it back over. She eagerly changed the channel back and sighed in relief when she realized she hadn't missed the elimination. "You just got lucky, Troy Bolton."

"I don't think so. I think _this_ is getting lucky," he grinned wickedly, grabbing her bag and throwing it on the ground sending fries soaring through the air before pulling her down on top of him on the bed.

"Troy, I want to know who goes home," she whined between kisses.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, gently pushing his erection up into her leg. She sighed loudly and turned off the TV.

"You are so difficult, I swear to G-" she started, but he silenced her with a kiss. They were both half naked when Troy's phone started to ring.

"I should get that," Troy gasped as Sharpay's hand slid down into his boxer briefs.

"No way, mister," she said. Even though every nerve in his body was screaming out in contradiction against his brain, he forced himself to gently push her away and dig his phone out of his recently discarded jeans. "I can not believe you…"

"It's either Chad or Taylor. This is their ring tone," he explained, still trying to figure out what pocket his phone was in. Troy heard Sharpay swear under her breath before doing something productive and picking up the fries from the floor and throwing them away. Once he'd finally found his phone, he saw that a picture of Taylor was displayed on the screen.

"What's up, Taylor?"

"You need to get over here now. I swear to god, you and Chad are like an old married couple. I'm sick of listening to him bitch about you and your stupid "Bro Code" and I just want it over. So be here in five minutes, or I'm calling Sharpay and filling her in on what's going on," Taylor threatened.

"I'll be there, I'll be there. _Geez_!" Troy said into the phone before hanging it up. He turned to Sharpay and saw that she'd already put her shirt and jeans back on. "I have to go. Taylor yelled at me."

"Okay okay. Leave me," she smiled, turning the TV back on.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he said as he zipped his jeans.

"If you want to," she shrugged.

"You're such a brat," he laughed, leaning down to place a kiss to her temple before leaving. He wanted to patch things up with Chad and he knew that it would happen eventually. He _also_ knew that if Chad was being so grumpy around him that Taylor was most likely getting the brunt of it all and he really couldn't blame her for demanding that they knock it off and fix it. But, she really had called at the worst possible moment. Well, not the _absolute_ worst but close.

Due to the late hour, campus wasn't too crowded. People had been keeping to themselves for the most part doing last minute paper writing and studying, but he was feeling well prepared after his study session with Sharpay that evening. She'd quizzed him for his government final for over an hour and then had demanded that he buy her dinner, which he had done gladly in exchange for the help. Chad would have given up on him after about five minutes and Taylor would have been adding little bits of information that would have only confused him. He had definitely appreciated Sharpay's assistance and felt incredibly prepared for his final in two days.

When he approached his and Chad's door, he felt a finger tap him on the shoulder. Troy wheeled around to see the tapping assailant without a thought and was surprised to see Zeke standing there.

"How's it going, Troy?" Zeke asked as if their relationship hadn't been severely compromised recently.

"Okay I guess. Why?"

"Gabriella knows you've been hanging out with Sharpay and she's pissed off about it. She thinks you were cheating on her. And yeah, I know that's fucked up since she was cheating on you with me, but she wants to know if she's right," Zeke rambled and Troy realized for the first time how uncomfortable Zeke looked. Zeke didn't want to be talking to him, especially not about Gabriella, that much was now obvious.

"Tell her it's none of her business," Troy said simply.

"Come on, man. You've got to give me better than that!" Troy had been turning to walk away but he stopped and slowly turned, making a quick decision of how to handle this new and completely unwanted situation.

"I don't have to give you _shit_, Zeke! You were one of my three best friends in the entire world and you were sleeping with my girlfriend. And instead of either of you coming clean, you let me stay in that relationship for _two years_. I owe you _nothing_ and never will again."

"Troy, don't walk away!"

"Stay away from me," Troy said, not bothering to turn around and look again before storming into his room, immediately hearing two thumps and then two very loud groans. It was then that he saw Chad and Taylor both rubbing their cheeks where the door had hit them hard.

"Serves you right for eavesdropping," Troy said, shaking his head.

"We heard you two talking, you think we weren't going to listen?" Taylor asked, "He has some nerve…"

"I really don't want to talk about it," Troy said, almost pleading with her to drop it. She seemed to pick up on that for once and let it go, but he knew it was only so she could start in on him and Chad.

"Okay, so we're going to finish this so I can actually study for my finals without hearing Chad sigh every five minutes," Taylor said sternly, "Now Chad, why don't you start and tell Troy your concerns?" Troy wanted to roll his eyes at Taylor taking over the situation, but he knew better.

"I just think it's really crappy that you bailed out on me to go spend the night with Sharpay. I was trying to be nice and make sure that you were okay and spend a whole evening with you and you just up and left," Chad said, and Troy thought he sounded a bit rehearsed. Taylor had no doubt made him plan what he would say to make sure that he didn't freak out and babble on and on about things that were unrelated to the situation at hand.

"I know, it wasn't the best decision I've ever made, but you've really pissed me off a few times lately. I know that Sharpay hasn't always been on our favorite person list in the past, but she's been a really good friend to me these last few weeks and I just wish you could see that."

"If she was just being a friend, Troy, I would see it but she's not! She's reeling you in and making you _think_ that's all she wants when that has never been part of her plan. She's tried to do this before, Troy, and now you're just letting her."

"Jesus! Gabriella said the same thing to her! Why can't you guys believe that she might have changed?"

"People don't usually change that quickly, Troy," Taylor interjected and Troy couldn't help but get mad about that.

"I thought that this was supposed to be about me and Chad," he said to her.

"Hey, last time I checked you are my friend as well and I'm worried about you, too!" she defended, "All I'm trying to say is that it's really hard for anyone to believe that suddenly Sharpay has your best interests in mind when all she's ever wanted was to have you for herself. That doesn't mean that she doesn't genuinely care about you, but this is just a really bad time for all of this to be transpiring." Troy groaned out loud and sat down in his desk chair. Why was all of this happening at once? Why couldn't one problem just get resolved before the next one started? Would the downward shit-spiral ever end?

"What do you two want from me?" Troy asked, his head buried in his hands, "Do you want me to stop seeing Sharpay? Do you want me to start hating her? Do you want me to be alone all the time?"

"Of course not, Troy!" Taylor said.

"Well then how about you two try to be around more often? You two are always off doing god knows what. Gabriella and I broke up and because of that, I can't hang out with Zeke any more. Jason isn't talking to me since I snapped at him for assuming that he was siding with Zeke. If you don't want me to hang out with Sharpay, then who do you want me to hang out with?" Their lack of answer told him that his comment had made them feel guilty, which was exactly what he wanted. After a lengthened silence, he finally raised his head. "What if I really like her?"

"Then you definitely need to end it, man," Chad said sincerely.

"What?" Troy asked disgustedly. Chad sighed as if the answer should have been obvious and continued.

"You just got out of a two year relationship," he started.

"Yeah, a shitty relationship based on lies," Troy spat.

"That part doesn't matter. It was still a two year relationship. Until a few weeks ago, you had no idea it wasn't a good one," Chad explained, "And everything you're doing right now is just rebounding."

"And…?"

"Look, it's normal to rebound. People do it because they find someone who's filling all the gaps their ex left behind and right now, that's what Sharpay's doing for you. And maybe it's right and you could be in a good relationship with her. But everyone knows that you don't end up with the rebound person. If you think you might really want to be with Sharpay, then you need to back off now so you can know for sure. And then once you've cooled off from this insane break-up, then you can give it a real chance."

"So, if I think I might really like Sharpay I need to stay away from her?" Troy asked.

"Exactly," Taylor said. Troy groaned and again let his head fall into his hands. Why did everything have to be so damned complicated?


	18. The grand finale

Well, friends, this is it. I couldn't find a good place to cut the chapter in half, so instead you're basically getting two in one. I LOVE this story and I love how the characters developed. Don't be surprised if some day you see a one-shot added to this story every once in a while when I think of an idea I wish I could have put into the story.

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who supported this story and who will continue to find this story and read it. It's my first ever HSM fanfic and now it's complete.  You all are the best and I hope you tune in to read my future stories!

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To call Sharpay, or not to call Sharpay. That was Troy's question.

His phone had been sitting in his hand, her name selected and his finger hovering over the send button for well over a minute. Every time his finger lowered to touch the key, Chad and Taylor's words came back and filled his head.

_She's a rebound girl!_

_If you really like her, you have to break it off._

What the hell did they know? They'd been dating for over two years. Neither of them had _ever_ been in a rebound type of situation, so why was he taking advice from them? They were the poster children for a normal, properly functioning relationship. They knew nothing about the situation he was in. If spending time with Sharpay made him happy, then why would he adamantly try to stay away from her? It made no sense, he finally decided, and let his finger drop to press the button. He waited patiently while the phone rang and smiled as her voicemail picked up.

"Hello, you've reached Sharpay Evans' phone, and I'm obviously far too busy to talk to you right now. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you if I deem you worthy," her message said. She had a tendency to change her voicemail message whenever she got bored and it wound up being different almost every time he called her.

"Hey Sharpay, it's Troy. I know it's been a few days since I called you. I was trying to concentrate on my finals and I'm done now. I'd like to see you before they force me out of the dorms. Give me a call." He set the phone down on his desk and got back to packing. All of his finals had taken place during two days, which had seemed bad at the time, but now he was messing around and packing while pretty much everyone else was still finishing up. It was good for him since he had begun to realize that he'd been quite the packrat throughout the year and had a lot of sorting to do before he could pack up and leave. A whole stack of presents and notes Gabriella had given him were still stashed in his bottom dresser drawer. He had no idea what to do with those. Did he keep them as a memento to their relationship, the first big one he'd ever been in? Or did he throw them away since she obviously hadn't meant a single word she'd written? That was not a hurdle he wanted to attempt to jump just yet, and so they sat untouched, buried underneath some socks and boxers.

Chad came in the room sighing loudly.

"What's wrong?" Troy asked even though he already knew the answer. Chad had been stressing about his biology final for weeks and had done far more complaining about it than actually studying.

"That final violated me," Chad groaned, throwing his backpack on the futon before collapsing on top of it, "I mean, I bent over and it took full advantage."

"_Way_ more of a mental image than I needed," Troy mumbled under his breath.

"I'm sure I failed," Chad lamented into the lumpy navy mattress and Troy just rolled his eyes. Chad had judged Sharpay plenty for her past antics, but would undoubtedly beat her hands down in a drama queen contest any day, of that much, Troy was sure. Without even acknowledging Chad's little self-pity party, he continued to shove things into various duffel bags until he was satisfied with his daily progress. By the time he was finished, Chad had given up, realizing that Troy wasn't going to feel sorry for him, and he was staring blankly at his computer with an empty Word document open.

"What are you doing?" Troy asked.

"I have a paper due tomorrow," Chad grumbled, gesturing to the stack of research note cards Taylor had obviously helped him organize, "All the research is done, my bibliography is written, and my outline is set. I just have to type it out."

"Well, I'm going to get out of your hair so you can finish," Troy said, bending down to dig in the messy fridge for a Pepsi and deciding to be nice and get one for Chad as well. He set the can down next to Chad's computer and patted him on the shoulder before snagging his cell off his desk and heading for the door.

"You're not going to Sharpay's, are you?" Chad asked, a motherly tone all too present in his voice.

"I don't know, why?" Troy spat.

"Just remember what Taylor and I said. People don't change that fast, Troy. Ever," he said. Troy didn't say anything, because he couldn't think of a civil response to Chad's comment. So instead, he just left and headed for the student union where he could get a taco in a bag to tame the ravenous beast that had apparently taken up residence in his stomach. As he was walking across the quad, he passed Sharpay. She breezed past him so quickly he almost missed her.

"Sharpay!" he shouted out at her. She turned and looked at him carefully, sizing him up. Then, in her typical over-exuberant way, she came running towards him.

"Troy? Troy Bolton, is that you? Oh my god, it's been _forever_ since I've seen you," she said, acting as if they were long-lost friends reunited. He sighed and accepted the playful slug to the shoulder she gave him.

"Still riding high off your acting final?" he asked.

"No, just pissed off at you for avoiding me the last few days," she sassed, "So now you can buy me dinner to make up for it." He muttered something resembling "Yeah, yeah" under his breath as he innocently placed a hand on her back and guided her towards the Union.

"I've been busy, Sharpay. And you were the one who told me to call you if I had time," he pointed out.

"Well yeah, but that obviously meant that I wanted you to call me," she laughed, "We've been having a lot of fun hanging out and you kind of had me worried."

"Sorry," Troy said, "I aced all of my finals, though. That should mean that I'll get a 4.0 this semester, which has never happened since 1st grade, I believe."

"Good for you. I guess you just didn't want me around distracting you, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Troy said, and with that, she launched into a story about how someone had started to do the dialogue from the wrong play in the middle of their acting final. He watched her talk animatedly, a truly effortless feat for her, and her words kept fighting their way to the forefront of his mind. She had been expecting him to call her? Weren't they just friends hanging out when they had a chance? And now she wanted him to buy her dinner? Whenever they'd gone out to eat together, they'd always paid for their own food. What was so different now? It was his _punishment_ for not calling her? He tried not to let Chad's warning resurface, but there it was, pounding over and over in his ears the entire time they made their way to the Union.

Troy found himself practically inhaling his food while Sharpay ate hers at a much more respectable speed. If she was aware of Troy's unease, she surely wasn't showing it. In fact, she looked as comfortable as ever sitting there talking to him while eating her dinner out of a little Doritos bag with a plastic fork. Troy just figured it was one more thing he could add to his list of things he never thought he'd see Sharpay do.

"So, when are you leaving?" she asked.

"Dad's coming with the truck in a few days so we can load everything up and go back home. Then, it's back to Lava Springs on Monday, but I'm sure you already knew that," he smiled. She nodded.

"Yes, of course Mom and Dad told me. But I won't be there to keep you company this summer," she told him, "I'm doing two different community theater performances this summer so I'll be busy. Mostly just in during the afternoons to work on my tan, I think."

"Oh, I thought you were going to be around all the time like the last two summers," he said, "Oh well. I guess I'm not there to socialize. I'm there to work, right?"

"That's right, mister. And don't you forget it," she laughed. He smiled back at her and felt some of his nerves start to dissipate and made the decision to punch Chad very hard in a location yet to be determined as soon as he got back to the room. Chad and Taylor and their meddling had actually affected him and the way he looked at Sharpay, and that was well worth a retaliation. And since Taylor was a girl and he couldn't, and wouldn't, hit her, Chad was going to have to deal with it.

They tossed their garbage into one of the cans by the doors and headed out into the rapidly darkening evening. It took Troy several minutes to realize that Sharpay was leading him in the direction of her sorority house. They chatted the whole way up the stairs and she waved and nodded to her sisters that she passed, but once they were inside her room and the door had shut, the polite look on her face was gone. In its place was one of pure, smoldering lust and her lips were on his before he could fully process what was happening.

"I've been wanting you for days, Troy," she breathed in his ear as her fingers worked to unbutton and unzip his jeans, removing them before anything else.

"You could have called me, you know," Troy said in between kisses, his hands sliding under her black tank top and peeling it up and eventually off. Her bra joined it on the floor a few seconds later and Troy backed her into a wall, his mouth latched onto her left nipple, working it with his tongue until she was clutching to his shoulders for support.

"Well, when I didn't hear from you the next day, I assumed you were just busy. But then the next day happened, and I just thought you wanted some space or something. I mean, we spent pretty much every day together there for awhile and I didn't want to push it." Troy wanted to hear more because he knew that if he let her keep talking, that she would probably wind up telling him her exact intentions, even if indirectly, but he knew that letting her continue would severely dampen the mood. That was an option that certain parts of his anatomy were definitely not in favor of, so he instead moved his hand underneath her jean skirt and used two fingers to shove aside the lacy fabric he found there. His fingers found her clit and worked them gently over the small, sensitive nub until she actually wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly so she wouldn't collapse to the floor. When he was satisfied with the state he'd gotten her in, he let his hand slide out from underneath her panties and grabbed the backs of her thighs, pulling her legs around his waist so he could walk them over to the bed.

Once he had gently dropped her to the mattress, she rid herself of the rest of her clothes in a hurry while Troy did the same, his now fully hard cock more than ready to be enveloped inside her. He quickly slid on the condom he'd somehow managed to locate in his wallet and climbed on the bed between her legs, immediately lining himself up to enter her.

"Are you ready?" he asked and she nodded, raising her hed to capture his lips in hers, engaging them in a long heated kiss that lasted until he was fully and comfortably inside her.

"Oh, I missed you," she moaned as he moved in and out of her just the way she liked. He had intended to return the sentiment, but Sharpay caught him totally off guard by pushing on his chest until he rolled over onto his back allowing her to be on top. As she swiveled up and around him, his hands gripped hard into her hips as he fought to maintain control. For Troy, time lost all meaning as they moved together in that small, increasingly hot room, and eventually he could wait any longer. He came hard, his fingers never letting go of their grip on Sharpay and he felt that she had come as well as her movements stilled and her hands moved to his stomach. Without a word, she slowly moved herself off of him and collapsed back onto the bed. Troy sat up and excused himself to go to the bathroom, and when he returned, he found Sharpay still laying there naked in the middle of her bed.

"Are you dead?" he asked, reaching out with his foot to poke her leg with his big toe.

"I'm just not quite to the moving stage yet," she laughed. Troy looked around the room and finally realized that everything was in boxes. The pictures on her walls, the Star Dazzle Award trophies, all of it was gone. All that remained was empty pieces of furniture and, obviously, her bed.

"Are you leaving tomorrow?" he asked. She nodded and struggled herself into a sitting position.

"Dad and Ryan are coming to get me tomorrow afternoon. I start rehearsals in two days, so I kind of have to take off already," she said. There was a significant pause before she decided to continue, "Could you stay here tonight? I would really like to spend the night with you since we don't know when that'll happen again."

"I don't know, Sharpay. I have a lot of packing to do and Chad will need me to keep him on task to write his paper," Troy said, coming up with what he immediately realized were two of the lamest excuses he could have come up with.

"Troy, I don't know what's going on with you. I thought we were finally getting close, that maybe…" she started.

"That maybe what?"

"God Troy, I don't know! Why don't _you_ figure it out? I'm so tired of always being the instigator, Troy. I have no idea how you feel about me, I just don't know what to do any more."

"How I feel about you? I thought we were just friends, Sharpay. Wasn't that what all this was about?"

"Yes it was… at first! But can you honestly tell me that you feel nothing for me at all? We get along so well and we have so much fun together. Isn't that what you want?" And it was at that exact moment that everything came to a screeching halt for Troy. At first she had wanted to be friends, because that was what Troy had needed. Taylor and Chad had been right about everything. Troy pulled on his jeans faster than he ever had before and grabbed his shirt off the edge of the bed, not even bothering to pull it on before going out into the hallway. He ran down the stairs and out the door, pulling on his shirt backwards and inside out before hopping on the campus bus a few blocks down. Walking all the way across campus did not sound appealing and neither did sitting on the smelly bus, but at the moment, it was the lesser of two evils.

When he got back to his dorm, it was after nine and Chad appeared to be only halfway through his note cards.

"How's it going?" Troy asked, hoping to deflect Chad's questions about his whereabouts long enough to get him ranting about his paper. That was the only way he might get Chad to drop the Sharpay subject for the day.

"Okay, Taylor helped me a lot with the organizing and it's making the paper come out pretty smoothly. I knew there was a reason why I kept her around," Chad smiled, his eyes not leaving the screen.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason why," Troy said, looking at himself in the mirror and noticing for the first time that his shirt was put on wrong. He used it as a pretense to get dressed for bed and headed out to the bathroom to go brush his teeth. When he came back, Chad had obviously decided to take a break because he was sitting in his desk chair backwards waiting for Troy to return.

"So, were you over at Sharpay's?" Chad asked, trying to sound casual.

"Yes, I was," Troy said, "She's leaving tomorrow."

"Has to get a good head start on her tan?"

"No, she's doing a couple of community theater performances this summer to get some more experience and her rehearsals start the day after tomorrow," Troy said, defending her even though he still didn't think he could trust her motives of late. However, he knew for a fact that he didn't want Chad to know that. There was no way he could ever admit to Taylor and Chad that they had been right and that Sharpay had just been trying to lure him in after all. As long as he kept it to himself, it was his own cross to bear and no one could constantly remind him that they had been right and he had been wrong.

"Oh, well that's cool. Are you going to go see them?"

"I don't know," Troy laughed, "I guess so. Don't you have a paper to write?" Chad sighed loudly.

"You're worse than Taylor," Chad informed him.

"Yeah, well Taylor isn't the one who's going to be kept up all night by the sound of your keyboard clicking. Finish your paper so we can both get some sleep," Troy said before climbing into bed. He just lay up there hoping that Chad would just stop procrastinating and finish up already. It had still been early when he'd gone to bed, and he had been so mentally exhausted that he had hoped it would make him fall asleep. However, the sound of Chad sighing and switching from typing rapidly in Word to clicking his mouse rapidly playing Solitaire wasn't helping matters. Finally, by some miracle, an hour after he'd gone to bed, he finally fell asleep. When Chad's alarm went off in the morning, signaling him to get out of bed to go turn in his paper, Troy didn't waste any time and threw his pillow at Chad's head. Lately, that had been the only thing to get Chad up, and Troy did not want to spend the rest of the day listening to Chad whining that his paper had been turned in late.

Once Chad was out the door, Troy started mulling around and getting ready for the day. He took his time in the shower, making sure to think about only mundane things that didn't matter. In the past, he had done some of his best deep thinking in the shower, but today, he just wanted to breeze by and maybe make an appearance at one of the end of the year parties taking place around campus. As he stepped out the front doors of his dorm building, he relished in the feeling of the warm air hitting his face. He was so absorbed in the sights and sounds of spring that he almost didn't feel his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. Without a thought, he took it out and looked at the screen only to see that he had a new text message from Sharpay. Cautiously, he opened it.

_Are we okay?_

It was only three little words, but Troy had no idea how to respond. Were they okay in the sense that things would go back to the way they had been for the last few weeks? No. But were they okay in that they would probably revert back to their old mild and distant friendship? Most likely. Instead of say the wrong thing, he just decided to ignore it. In a few hours, Sharpay would be gone anyway and he wouldn't have to worry about it for awhile. Not until he saw her at Lava Springs, at least.

A light grumble coursed through his stomach, reminding him that he was supposed to be heading to the Union to get something to eat. He redirected his path and was well on his way when suddenly, a blunt object hit his temple followed immediately by a jarring pain. Troy's hand flew up to covered the affected area and swore under his breath.

"Oh my god, Troy! Are you okay?" he heard a familiar voice call out.

"Fuck," he said under his breath. Of all the people in the world who could have thrown the Frisbee that hit him in the head, it just _had_ to be Gabriella. He ventured a look over to his right and saw Gabriella and Zeke running his way. As much as he wanted to just keep walking and pretend that the entire thing hadn't happened, they reached him before he could put that decision into action.

"Are you okay, man?" Zeke asked, reaching out to put a hand on Troy's shoulder. Troy shrugged off Zeke's hand and started to walk away.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he managed to get out through his now seething anger and crimson-faced embarrassment.

"You should probably put some ice on that," Gabriella offered.

"Oh, you think so?" Troy asked before he could stop himself, spinning on the balls of his feet to face her.

"Well, you just got a head injury, so yeah, icing it would probably be a good idea," she snapped back.

"A head injury? You call a Frisbee thrown by either a girl or a pussy with the worst excuse for an arm I've ever seen something that is capable of causing a _head injury_?"

"Come on, man. That was uncalled for," Zeke said.

"You know what _I_ think is uncalled for?" Troy started, "The fact that you two think that it's even remotely appropriate to be talking to me right now. Fuck both of you and as I've told you before, stay away from me."

"Isn't it about time for you to start dealing with it, _Troy_?" Gabriella asked, despite Zeke's efforts to make her walk away.

"It's dealt with, _Gabriella_. And honestly, I could care less about what you two are doing."

"Why, because you have Sharpay now? She's just using our breakup to get what she wants out of you. She's only going to hurt you."

"Since when do you care about my feelings?" Troy asked, "And for the record, I don't care if Sharpay's just using our breakup to be with me, because I _like_ being with her. She's fun, and she's smart, and she makes me happy. If it took our breakup for us to get together, then I guess that's just how it was supposed to be. Who _cares_ if she took advantage of an opportunity when she had it? She obviously had a feeling way sooner than I did that we would be good together, and guess what—she was right!" Troy had no idea where the tirade came from. All of the things he had been unwilling to think, that he had been unwilling to piece together, suddenly put themselves in order. Maybe Sharpay _had_ just been using his feeble state as a way in. She knew that he was stubbornly against being with her as a couple, and maybe she just realized that it was the only way to make him see how she really was. And maybe she had just been trying to be his friend the whole time and had finally gotten to see for herself that they were good together; years of crushing and speculation finally put to rest. He didn't even bother to say goodbye. He just left Gabriella and Zeke standing there watching as he ran across the field like a maniac.

Sharpay was leaving. Soon. How soon, he didn't know. The only thing he was sure of was that he had to get to her before she left. He'd chase the moving van down the street if he had to. There was just no way he could let her leave without telling her. If he waited until he saw her at Lava Springs, it would be too late. It had to be before she left.

His lungs burned as he sped his way across campus, brushing past some people and flat out running into others. He managed to scream out some apologies but didn't pause long enough to see if he even know the people he'd just bumped. When the Tri Delta house came into view, he caught a second wind and somehow made his legs move even faster. Without even looking at the girl at the front desk, he bolted up the stairs and started pounding on Sharpay's door.

"Hold on!" she yelled, sounding annoyed, but he didn't stop until she opened the door. "Troy? What are you-"

"Don't say anything. Just let me talk, okay?" he asked. She looked at him worriedly, but nodded. "My life has been crazy lately. I went from being a guy in a good but confusing relationship to a sucker who'd been getting cheated on to a complete psycho who could hardly keep from crying long enough to go to class. Almost everything I thought I knew about my life was wrong and I felt so lost.

"And then I slept with you, Sharpay. I really wish that that wasn't how all of this had started, but it was. That night and the next morning, I started to see the real you. The person you never let other people see. I didn't realize right away how lucky I was that you were letting me in like that. All I knew was that when I was with you, I didn't worry about all the terrible things that were happening in my life. When I was with you, I could just be Troy. I didn't have to be mopey post-breakup Troy and I didn't have to be basketball player Troy, I could just be me. I had never imagined that you really wanted to know me like that, and I'm really sorry that I never gave you the benefit of the doubt before.

"But in the last several weeks, the more we got to know each other and the more time we spent together, I started to feel like I wanted to spend all of my time with you. And some people told me that I was just rebounding with you and that you were just taking advantage of my fragile state to spend time with me. And maybe at first I was just rebounding and maybe at first you were just using the situation as an in. Maybe we were and maybe we weren't. Either way I really don't care, because the end result is the same."

"And that is?" Sharpay asked, her arms now wrapped around her stomach and tears in her eyes.

"That we know that we're good together," Troy answered, "We're good together and you make me happy, Sharpay. And if it's okay with you, I'd like us to be together."

"You know what, Troy?" she asked. Troy felt his stomach flop. He had been so frantic to get to her, so desperate to tell her how he felt that he had never once imagined what her response would be.

"What?" Troy asked, already terrified of her answer.

"I used to think that I wanted to be with you," she said, "But now, I _know_ that I want to be with you."

"You do?" he asked.

"Of course, you moron!" she sniffed, wiping tears from her cheeks as she laughed at him. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the ground.

Finally, his life made sense again.

**The End.**


End file.
